PDEA nabs 11 in raid on BGC hotel room

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested 11 men in a buy-bust operation in a hotel in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig over the weekend.

 

The authorities were supposed to arrest suspected drug dealers Edmond Remegio and Pedrito “Malik” Coronel Jr., allegedly known sellers of party drugs in BGC bars, but also chanced upon a drug session in the hotel room.

 

During the raid, the authorities caught nine of the suspects taking the party drug GBL or gamma-Butyrolactone.

 

GBL is a synthetic depressant substance which PDEA said increases sexual drive and brings euphoria to the user.

 

PDEA presented the suspects before the media on Monday.

 

Aside from Remegio and Coronel, PDEA will also charge the following for alleged violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act:

 

 

PDEA agents confiscated 20 tablets of ecstasy, shabu, 12 bottles of GBL weighing 530.8 ml estimated to cost P300,000 and a bottle of yet to be identified white capsules during the raid. They also recovered drug paraphernalia.

 

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said the buy-bust operation is a warning to party goers who take illegal drugs. He also said that the agency will intensify operations in upscale hotels suspected to be venues of illegal drug activities

 

“This is a stern warning to everyone who uses these kind of drugs and who loves to party during night. Time will come that we would still target you,” Aquino said in Filipino and English at a recorded press briefing.

 

Authorities said the suspects were in their underwear when the raid was conducted. That and the presence of party drugs has led PDEA to believe that they participating in a sex party, which is not by itself an illegal act.

There have been reports that one of the suspects tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV, a dicslosure that has been criticized online.

 

LGBT right advocate Mikhail Quijano slammed media for some reports that included that detail. He said the issue against the suspects is their illegal drug usage.

 

He also criticized media outlets that posted mugshots of the suspects.

 

Quijano said that revealing the HIV status of the suspects is illegal under Republic Act 8504, Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act.

 

Under the law, HIV status is confidential except in specific medical situations and if subject to a subpoena from a court.

 

Results of HIV/AIDS testing may only be released to the person, a parent if a child is tested, a legal guardian of orphans or "insane persons", "a person authorized to receive such results in conjunction with the AIDSWATCH program" or a justice of the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court.

 

Quijano also called the media reports a “castigation of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community.”

 

“Putting their identities on full display and creating a media frenzy around their sexual orientation and practices is incomprehensibly stupid and downright malicious,” Quijano wrote on a Facebook post.

 

“The public has no business with their alleged HIV status,” he added.