P1-M shabu seized in Ormoc raid

ORMOC CITY, Philippines – Eleven persons were arrested in a drug raid that also resulted in the seizure of 180 grams of shabu with an estimated value of P1.44 million in Barangay Tambulilid here last Thursday.

The raiding team, composed of agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the local police, said the drugs were packed in three big plastic sachets and 41 small ones.

The suspects were identified as Julie Areño, Bikal Boatan, Jundy Songahid, Leonardo Cesar, Rodolfo Villotis Jr., Dioscoro Batucan Jr., 30, Romel Sepe Jr. and four minors.

PDEA information officer Liza Fabi-Baoy said only Areño would be charged for drug trafficking while the others would be charged for being a worker or a visitor of a drug den.

Baoy said Areño, who reportedly sold a sachet of drugs to an undercover agent, ran into the house of Faidah Bao, who was the PDEA’s real target. 

Operatives pursuing Areño allegedly saw the drugs on a table in Bao’s house. Bao escaped through a back door.

PDEA officer-in-charge Laurefel Gabales said this was the biggest shabu recovery so far in the region after the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Meanwhile, a former village councilor and a son of a former town official were arrested in separate drug-related incidents in Allacapan town Cagayan and Ilagan City in Isabela over the weekend.

Allacapan police chief Senior Inspector Joefferson Gannaban said former councilman Manuel Trinidad was caught sniffing shabu in the village hall of Barangay Burot last Thursday.

Gannaban said Trinidad was with Felimon Collado and Romel Ventura when anti-narcotics agents stormed the place at around 10 p.m.

The three reportedly yielded a plastic sachet said to contain shabu and drug paraphernalia.

In Ilagan City, Gregory Barillos was arrested after reportedly selling eight sachets of shabu to an undercover agent in Barangay Baculud.

City police chief Superintendent Vincent Valdez said Barillos is a son of former councilor Roger Barillos, who served in 1992 when Ilagan was just a municipality. – With Raymund Catindig