Cotabato state college president charged over drug den

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has filed charges, including operation of narcotics den, against a president of a state college from whose house agents found shabu on Monday.

Levi Ortiz, director of PDEA’s Special Enforcement Service, said Thursday they have charged Samsom Molao with violation of Section 6, Article 2 of the Republic Act 9165 that specifically outlawed operation of drug dens.

Republic Act 9165 is also known as the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Act.

Molao, an ethnic Maguindanaon, is president of the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology (CFCST) in the upland Arakan town in the third district of North Cotabato.

Ortiz said they have submitted to the office of North Cotabato’s provincial prosecutor in Kidapawan City all documents needed in prosecuting Molao, supported with evidence.

By judicial regulation, courts do not allow suspects in operation of drug dens to post bail.

Ortiz and his men raided the CFCST campus Monday for a search operation that resulted in the recovery of some P500,000 worth of shabu kept in a cabinet inside Molao’s room in his official residence there.

The raiding team also recovered 13 firearms, including an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle, an M14 rifle and three M16 rifles from the school’s presidential compound inside the campus.

“He (Molao) was also charged with illegal possession of firearms,” Ortiz said Thursday.

The PDEA launched its operation against Molao in response to clamors by vigilant Arakan municipal and barangay officials asserting there was large-scale drug trafficking activities in the school.

Ortiz said there were also reports from Arakan residents about the alleged use of the CFCST campus as distribution point for shabu that peddlers sell to different barangays in the municipality.

Molao was nowhere in the campus when Ortiz and other PDEA agents arrived to search for narcotics based on a warrant issued by Judge Alandrex Betoya of the Regional Trial Court in Kabacan, North Cotabato.

Police intelligence agents are now validating persistent feedback from his relatives that he could be hiding now either in Pikit town in North Cotabato, or somewhere in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., of the Western Mindanao Command said Thursday the 6th Infantry Division will request the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to help locate Molao.

The committee, comprised of representatives from the Philippine National Police, from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and from the MILF, is helping maintain law and order in conflict flashpoint areas in southern provinces.

The government and the MILF are bound by a 1997 ceasefire accord to help each other address peace and security problems in areas where there are guerilla camps recognized as “peace zones” by both sides.