Death threat haunts nabbed PDEA man

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Death threat reportedly hounded an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) who has been implicated and arrested in a drug peddling case after yielding a 14.61 grams of shabu in a buy-bust operation Friday last week.

Clad in a bullet-proof vest, Intelligence Officer 1 Steven Lumiton Valles (who is connected with PDEA-Cebu) appeared before City Prosecutor Alberto Santos Rara for the inquest on his case last August 9 at the heavily guarded Hall of Justice.

Members of the Bohol SWAT team scattered around the building where the inquest was held, as Valles requested for full protection allegedly due to death threats he got, considering that was instrumental to the arrest of some drug suspects in the past.

Inspector Jojit Mananquil of the Provincial Intelligence Branch of the Bohol Police Provincial Office (BPPO), also received calls and text messages saying that some drug suspects, who Valles sent to jail, have waited for Valles' detention at the Bohol District Jail in Cabawan District to liquidate him.

Earlier, Chief Insp. Jovito Atanacio, PIB chief, disclosed that Valles requested to remain at the lock-up jail of BPPO in Camp Dagohoy, instead of being transferred to the BDJ, when the charges would be filed in court.

Valles, through Cebu-based legal counsel Wendell Quiban, asked for 10 days to come up with counter-affidavit on the complaint filed against him. This caused Rara to set the preliminary hearing on the case on August 19.

BPPO director Constantino Barot Jr., for his part, assured the public that there will be no special treatment on Valles and his office will turn him over to court once the charges are filed.

Barot also said that no personnel was at the PDEA-Tagbilaran office when they carried out the buy-bust operation and that an officer at PDEA-Cebu even called him up that time to confirm the report about Valles' arrest and if they needed a PDEA representative so he could sent one.

Lawyer Albano Lazaro, PDEA director for internal affairs, and Gladys Rosales, PDEA director for plans and operational service came on Monday to conduct a separate investigation on the incident.

The arrest of Valles came about two months after a drug suspect named Lennox Bas claimed that his supply of shabu came from a member of a law-enforcing agency, hinting it to be either PDEA or PNP. Bas was arrested inside a room at Travel Lodge in Mansasa Seaside, this city, and is now facing drug charges.

From then on, the BPPO's Provincial Public Safety Company put Valles in surveillance. A composite team from PIB and the PPSC, then carried out the buy-bust operation past 8 p.m. on August 5, without knowledge of PDEA.

Valles said he had been a PDEA agent for more than three years and was assigned to this province for two years before he was transferred to Cebu City. - THE FREEMAN