‘Duterte effect?’ Batangas’ cops crushing drug suspects and their dens before, after new presidency

BATANGAS CITY, Philippines (The Filipino Connection) — Fighting illegal drugs in this province south of Manila may be a daunting task given an ambitious three-to-six-month target, an electoral promise made by a sitting president, to wipe out this menace.

But the new provincial Philippine National Police director here, Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Cabanag, thinks this presidential target is doable.

His statement at the provincial police’s change of command ceremony comes in the coattails of activities at the central command in Manila: New President Rodrigo Duterte named five PNP generals allegedly involved in illegal drugs operations and PNP Director-General Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa egging on the said PNP officials to surrender.

Cabanag’s new policy will also further operationalize what provincial, city and municipal law enforcers had been doing prior to the coming of Duterte: drub drugs and its big and small-time agents locally.

“Drugs cannot be stopped only when we do nothing about it, when we’re tolerating it…And I say to you eradicating drugs is doable,” Cabanag said in his speech at the Batangas police’s change of command speech in Camp Miguel Malvar on July 4.

“I say it’s doable because I’ve done it before,” Cabanag said in his speech at the Batangas police’s change of command speech in Camp Miguel Malvar on July 4.

Cabanag replaces Senior Superintendent Arcadio Ronquillo Jr., who served as Batangas police director for seven months ending June 30.

Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent Vafrie Tabian, who witnessed the ceremony, told the media Cabanag’s designation is part of the PNP’s reshuffling of personnel to give their units a fresh mandate following the assumption of Duterte last June 30.

Cabanag was former chief of the Central Visayas police’s Regional Public Safety Batallion Group. But even while his career path went into law enforcement, his extended family members got stung by the drug menace as he claims.

Two of his nephews died while his cousin got insane for using drugs. The same cousin also constantly feared for his life since he got involved in the illegal drug trade, where killings are already rampant among rivaling gangs.

“Should we wait for all these things to happen to us? Should you wait for all these things to happen to you, to your family and friends before you will take the move to fight criminality,” Cabanag told police officers in his assumption speech.

He likewise said that now is the time to make changes; he will take the lead to make changes in Batangas “no matter what it risks, my life and my future.”

“I will take the risk just to attain peace and tranquility of Batangas at all costs,” said Cabanag, also a former police chief of Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.

“We will get this done. We can get it done,” Cabanag said even as he asked civilians to help the police in fighting crimes and drugs. Quoting author Edmund Burke in reference to their battle against illegal drugs, Cabanag said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Batangas provincial police statistics showed that from January to April 2016, the police had already conducted 585 anti-drug operations, which includes buy-bust, search warrant and other types of operations.

Provincial law enforcers yielded 1,813.95 grams of shabu and 669.87 grams of marijuana, with Lipa City, Batangas City and Tanauan City topping the list. Coincidentally, these three cities were identified as drug hotspots by new Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent Vafrie Tabian.

Periods

Under a new presidency with a hard-nosed mandate to curb the Philippine illegal drug trade, three time periods mark the Batangueño police force’s efforts to rid of major syndicates and suspects.

During the campaign period, at a time Duterte was in the middle of campaigning, Batangas province solved a major case through the Lipa City Police. Last March 1, suspects Cecille Cordova and Francine Calderon were arrested after they were caught selling drugs during the police’s buy-bust operation outside of their rented apartment in Barangay 7, Lipa City.

Police recovered from the suspects 1.465 kilograms of shabu worth P13.18 million, P10,000 cash, three digital weighing scales, and three mobile phones. Also recovered were bank deposit slips and a blue book with the list of various cities and municipalities in Batangas and nearby Calabarzon Provinces and Metro Manila.

Then Lipa City Police Chief Superintendent Barnard Dasugo said the blue book shows the extent of the drug operations in the country and the seriousness of the problem.

Previously, some drug suspects were also said to be renting apartments in Lipa that are being used as drug dens. Police sources cited Dasmarinas City in neighboring Cavite province as one of the sources of drugs in Lipa, although they said the drug sources are not centralized and may come from any place in the country.

Duterte effect?

Weeks heading into the inaugural of Duterte, post-May 9 elections, was another time where drug busting efforts by Filipino police were highlighted. Areas across the country landed on the news for either arresting or killing drug suspects, and Filipino police were to greet Duterte’s inauguration with what observers saw as rising vigilantism just to appease then President-elect Duterte.

In Batangas province, for example, municipalities and cities there joined other local governments across the country in reporting drug-related arrests and operations.

At a buy-bust operation last June 7 in Brgy. San Sebastian, Lipa City, not all suspects peacefully yielded to authorities, like a certain alias “Glenn” from Cavite who died in a firefight with chasing policemen.

Police recovered from the suspect “Glenn” 45 grams of shabu worth P500,000. The police are still looking for the whereabouts of Glenn’s companion suspect, who got wounded in the ensuing gun battle and was able to escape.

In Tanauan City, re-elected Mayor Antonio Halili has been parading drug suspects in the infamous walk of shame to try to rid his city of drugs. They have already paraded 21 suspected pushers and users in the public market, drawing flak from the suspects themselves and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

Arrested drug suspects in the Tanauan City government’s most recent “Walk of Shame” for arrested drug suspects. Halili says during his oath taking today today this practice will continue. President Duterte, for his part, says criminality must “be stopped by all means that the law allows.” Facebook/Tanauan City’s Hope

Despite criticisms from the CHR, the mayor said that the shame campaign is an information awareness campaign to let the people know who the drug suspects are that they should avoid. He also wants to “erase the negative image of Tanuan as crime capital” with the walk of shame campaign.

Halili said in an interview that Tanauan’s drug problems are already serious that in some areas particularly in Barangay Sambat, his home barangay, it’s being sold as a commodity like salt.

Halili even accused some policemen of being protectors and cohorts which made it difficult for the city to fight drugs. Apart from Halili, there seems to be distrust with the police here from ordinary citizens as a former barangay captain in Tanauan they were hesitant to do so as usually when they coordinate with the cops, the information leaks out to the suspects and thus they were able to evade arrest. (Then Tanauan City Police Chief Superintendent Carlos Barde declined request for interviews.)

Police sources said that shabu in Tanauan is available for as low as P200 to P500 per sachet. Some minors are also being used as drug peddlers in exchange for cash. The railroad alley in Tanauan City’s Barangay 4 is likewise considered a drug hotspot with some shanties of informal settlers being used as drug dens. Some of the residents in the said squatters area are not natives of Tanauan; they came from various parts of the country.

Star Tollway has an exit in Sambat, which police sources said provides a safe passage from Batangas to Manila making it easier to transport illegal drugs.

“It’s hard to catch them in the act of selling drugs as you can only do it in plain view especially when they’re already inside their car,” says a former member of Tanauan police’s patrol team, adding that some drug transactions often occur in the middle of the highway making it hard for authorities to stop.

Following their massive campaign against drugs, Halili claimed that except for one, all drug lords have already left Tanauan to operate instead in the neighboring municipalities and cities. He refused to divulge the name of that person. Halili also schedules a regular meeting with suspected pushers and users every Wednesday to warn them of the ill effects of drugs and convince them to stop.

Despite supporting Duterte’s hardline stance against drugs, Halili said he’s not in favor of his shoot to kill orders noting that killing addicts and pushers wont resolve the problem.

Many have already died in Tanauan after they pitted rival drug gangs against each other, Halili says, and he doesn’t want more people to die. Authorities should instead concentrate on cutting off the sources to rid the country of drugs.

In Malvar, home to an economic zone in the province, police chief PCI Albert Fabregas said the town police have successfully decreased the number of pushers from 60 to 40. Fabregas however said they are not only focusing on reducing the supply but the demand for drugs as well through continuous education in various barangays especially with the youth to prevent them from using drugs.

Last June 10, the police have arrested in the drug raid Jepoy Dusal, Nelson De Silva, Mara Jane Mane at Ruben Guci, who were caught doing a pot session in Barangay Maguihan. Alleged owner of a drug den Rochelle Tejamo and another suspect Annaliza Marfuri was also accosted and they recovered from the suspects 17 sachets of suspected shabu worth P26,950.

As related to the case of Dusal and company, police cited Lipa City and Cavite and Laguna provinces as the sources of the drugs as some of these drugs are also shipped to Laurel municipality, then to Agoncillo town until it reaches Lemery.

Arnold de Silva, alias “Banker,” was said to be Lemery municipality’s “big-time” drug dealer but authorities said he fled Lemery. Lemery police are still looking for two remaining local illegal drugs personalities.

Also in Lemery, three suspects —Gregorio Lasmarias, Jonalyn Mondelo and Luzviminda Groyon— had already been killed in several ambushes by drug synidicates whose identities the local police are still determining.

On June 24, they arrested Manny Aguilera, the town’s third top drug personality and confiscated from his possession a caliber 9 mm pistol, eight sachets of suspected shabu and other drug paraphernalias. Aguilera was said to be a big time drug pusher on the priority list of Malvar police at least for the last three years.

Malvar’s drug sources usually come from the nearby cities of Tanauan and Lipa, he says, even as Fabregas adds there are no drug syndicates currently operating in Malvar.

Early into the new presidency

This brings us to the third period of the Filipino police force’s drug-busting campaign: the new Duterte presidency. Early into the Duterte presidency, Batangas police are on the prowl against drug suspects.

Batangas City’s fourth most wanted drug personality, Marco Castillo, was arrested on July 1 by virtue of a warrant of arrest for the previous case of violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. They recovered from his possession a sachet of suspected shabu worth P660.

Seven of the ten most wanted drug personalities in Batangas City have already been arrested; with Castillo’s arrest, the list is down to three.

Just last July 4, the first Monday of the Duterte presidency, Tanauan City’s sixth most wanted drug personality Laureano Cabrera got killed in a buy-bust operation after he allegedly engaged in a gun battle with authorities. Seized from the suspect were two sachets of suspected shabu and caliber 45 pistol.

Batangas City’s campaign against illegal drugs meanwhile led to the death of five suspects in separate police operations, namely Donald Medina, Erwin Bunquin, and Dennis Atienza.

Most recently, last July 5, father-and-son suspects Julian Carpio and Julian Carpio Jr. were also killed. Authorities said the suspects were killed in a gun battle with police officers after they retaliated in the course of the operation.

The elder Carpio was listed as the top illegal drug personality priority target in the province and was said to be a handler of gun-for-hire assassins operating in the province’s second district.

Local weekly newspaper Frontpage quoted Lemery Police Chief PCI Dwight Fonte as saying that 20 of 48 barangays in Lemery are now being monitored as a drug hotspot, with Barangay Maguihan topping the list.

Some arrested drug suspects have also confessed that they got their shabu from the Batangas provincial jail and the police is verifying the said information. Provincial Jail officials denied the allegations. Barangays Anak-Dagat and Maguihan in Lemery were included among the list of hotspots in Batangas province by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in 2013.

In Padre Garcia municipality, the local police put up a drop box where concerned citizens can write on paper the names of the drug pushers and users they know, subject for verification by the police. Surprise random drug tests were also conducted by the provincial crime lab to ensure that uniformed men in Batangas are not into drugs.

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Marlon Alexander S. Luistro is the editor of The Filipino Connection, a regional partner of Philstar.com