97 more ‘surrendered’ to authorities: Cops nab 10 in anti-drug campaign

CEBU, Philippines - Ten persons, including a minor, were arrested and close to 100 more suspected drug personalities have “surrendered” all over Cebu in the ongoing intensified campaign against illegal drugs ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte.

A drug raid by Criminal Investigation and Detection Group -7 around noon yesterday resulted to the capture of the minor and seven adults in Sitio Sangi Road, Barangay Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City.

Superintendent Fermin Armendares, who led the operation, said they served a warrant to search the house of Renante Degolacion, 38, inside Tumulak Village but only Degolacion’s wife Robelyn, 37, was there.

Degolacion was the same drug personality who evaded arrest when officers from Gun-ob Police Station conducted a buy-bust operation last March.

According to Pajo Barangay Captain Junard Chan, Degolacion was the brother of Richard Degolacion, who was wounded and arrested during an operation by the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office – City Intelligence Branch last year.

This was the second time Degolacion eluded arrest.

Robelyn was arrested after the CIDG personnel found five medium packs of suspected shabu worth around P295,000.

Robelyn, though, denied knowing about the suspected illegal drugs, saying she and her husband separated a year ago. Degolacion, she said, rarely visited her and their two children.

Aside from arresting Robelyn, the CIDG policemen also handcuffed seven others, including a minor, who were allegedly doing a drug session in two nearby shanties.

The police identified them as Ken Kikuchi, 22; Roldan Moralde, 48; and Jason Duran, 23, all of the area; Alfred Alviola, 33, of Sitio Seawage, Barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City; Renato Pinote, 31, and a 17-year-old boy, both from Pajo, Armendares.

Meanwhile, Consolacion policemen led by the town police chief, Senior Inspetor Wilson Abot, arrested Riann Sacol, 37, a resident of Poblacion Occidental, Consolacion Monday during a buy-bust operation.

Using P150 as buy-bust money, Police Officer 3 Tremaine Sotto served as poseur-buyer and arrested Sacol when he handed to him a pack of suspected shabu.

A subsequent search resulted to the recovery of the buy-bust money and one small transparent plastic container containing nine pieces of small heat-sealed transparent plastic believed to be shabu from Sacol’s possession

In Dalaguete town, policemen led by Senior Inspector Dexter Basirgo arrested Nicanor Herauda, 31, a resident of Barangay Balud, Dalaguete, and his alleged cohort, Ma. Janeth Navarrete, Tuesday dawn also during a buy-bust operation.

Authorities seized seven small plastic sachets containing suspected shabu.

In the neighboring town of Argao, northern town of Sta. Fe, and in the City of Naga, 97 “drug pushers and users” turned themselves in at the police stations in their place as a result of the police’s Oplan Tokhang (Toktok-Hangyo), which is a program of the new Philippine National Police Chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, where authorities knock on the doors of suspected drug personalities and request them to stop their involvement in the illegal drugs trade.

Police Senior Inspector William Homoc, chief of the Argao Police Station, told The FREEMAN that 31 drug personalities appeared before their station yesterday to surrender. He said the 31, who came from barangays Cambanwa and Langtad, promised to reform themselves.

Homoc said that since these individuals surrendered, he said they were now included in their monitoring.

“It’s easier to locate and identify them if they will go back to their illegal activities since we have taken their pictures and personal data for our documentation,” he said in Cebuano.

He also said that of the 45 barangays of Argao, no barangay can be categorized as “seriously affected” by the illegal drugs menace. He likewise said that the town has no “high value” drug personality.

In the municipality of Sta. Fe, 49 drug personalities also surrendered before the Sta. Fe Police Station in the presence of Mayor Jose Esgana last Tuesday.

Police Officer 2 Jolimar Gilbuena said the 49 were from Poblacion, Talisay, and Pooc, or three of the town’s 10 barangays. He said that of the 49, the oldest was 44 while the youngest was 22.

Around 2 p.m. yesterday, 18 suspected drug personalities showed up at the Naga Police Station to likewise surrender following an Operation Tokhang conducted in barangays Mohon and Langtad.

Deputy Chief of Police Jose Rovic Villarin said it was a result of their aggressive campaign to make the City of Naga illegal-drug-free.

The day before, a similar operation in Barangay Tinaan resulted to the arrest of Marvin Encabo, 31, a resident of the barangay, after he was seen carrying an improvised shotgun and an 12-gauge shotgun around 6:30 p.m.

A records check resulted to the discovery that Encabo has a pending warrant of arrest for frustrated murder issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 12 Presiding Judge Estela Alma Singco. — Christell Fatima M. Tudtud, Mylen P. Manto, Iris Mariani B. Algabre (FREEMAN)