Bohol PNP Lab confirms shabu found at PB room

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — The three plastic sachets found last July 15 by a cleaner at the ante-room of the Provincial Board’s session hall were confirmed to contain shabu, according to results of the tests conducted by the Bohol Provincial Crime Laboratory Office.

“Qualitative examination conducted on specimen A gave positive result to the tests for the presence of dangerous drug,” stated Chemistry Report No: D-485-2015 of  the BPC Lab, dated July 15, 2015. It added: “Specimen A — three sachets found in Capitol lobby room of the PB and submitted to the laboratory tests — contains methamphetamine hydrochloride considered to be dangerous drug.”

Inspector Jovani Dumayac Abregana, forensic chemist, was the examiner of the “shabu” and Superintendent Pinky Sayson Acog, forensic chemical officer, approved the said finding.

The three sachets of “shabu” weighed a total of 0.34 grams, police said. City Police Station inventory report (dated July 15, 2015) also showed the three sachets of “shabu” were received by Police Officer 2 Ignacio Inojales after this was turned over by a certain Virginia Luciano Tunan, a utility casual employee of the Office of the Vice Governor.

Tunan, a resident of Union Poblacion in Dauis town of Bohol, told DyTR radio she found the “shabu” by chance at around 3 p.m. on July 15 when she was sweeping the PB’s ante-room or lobby.

She said the “plastic” looked like a jewelry pouch, estimated to be about 1/16th of a bond paper in size, and contained three transparent sealed sachets. Shortly after the discovery, Tunan told another Capitol employee, Mimi Ruloma, about it.

Ruloma and a security guard, identified only as Yapac, surmised it was shabu, prompting Tunan to inform the vice governor’s chief of staff, lawyer Filipina Asoy Piollo.

Piollo and her husband, who was there at the time, in turn called up the police. Two policemen responded and arrived at the vice governor’s office, and then “interrogated” Tunan about the discovered items.

Vice Governor Concepcion Lim, who was only a few meters from Piollo’s desk, encouraged Tunan to disclose everything, and the latter obliged. The policemen then took into their custody the “shabu” reportedly for laboratory tests.

This incident however was apparently kept under the nose of public attention until PB Member Dionisio Balite delivered a privilege speech on August 7 exposing the shabu discovery right “at the doorsteps of the seat of the provincial government.”

Balite raised questions on the circumstances of the discovery, while the vice governor also informed the PB about the incident. He then called on Governor Edgar Chatto to conduct a thorough investigation into this, saying that if illegal drugs remained unchecked then “the future of our young generation is doomed.”

Meanwhile, random drug testing among Capitol workers was recently conducted recently, but its results and the identities of seven members of the Provincial Security Forces, who were allegedly found positive of drug use, were kept secret to this day.

Provincial Health Office chief Reymoses Cabagnot cited confidentiality on the affected persons, and only confirmed there was drug testing done on the Capitol employees. (FREEMAN)