P20.4 million shabu seized in Malate hotel

MANILA, Philippines — A suspected drug dealer was arrested in a sting at a hotel in Malate, Manila yesterday.

Members of the police Drug Enforcement Group seized three kilos of shabu, with a street value of P20.4 million, from Ryan Tomawis, 25, in a room of the hotel at the corner of Mabini street and Quirino Avenue at around 3:20 p.m., DEG director Chief Superintendent Albert Ignatius Ferro said.

The suspect was brought to Camp Crame for documentation. Drug charges are being readied against him.

Tomawis is allegedly a part of a drug syndicate operating in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

In Pasay City, a 15-year-old male student was arrested by the guard of President Corazon C. Aquino High School yesterday morning when he reportedly brought seven sachets of marijuana with him.

The student and the marijuana were turned over to the police’s drug enforcement unit.

On Aug. 22, another student was arrested for bringing three sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu into the school.

Drug conviction cited

In Taguig, Mayor Lani Cayetano yesterday lauded the conviction of three men for drug pushing.

“Each drug personality we pin down is definitely a win for the city,” she said.

Judge Antonio Olivete of Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 267 sentenced Jose Vastine, Edilberto Ty and Alberto Joaquin Ong to serve life terms and fined them P500,000 each.

Olivete also ordered Ong and Vastine to undergo six months of drug rehabilitation.

The three were arrested in a sting in 2011 and two kilos of high-grade cocaine, with a street value of P10 million, were seized from them.

Cayetano said among those sentenced to life terms were Joel Tinga and Elisa Tinga in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Elisa is married to Noel Tinga, reportedly a cousin of former Taguig mayor Freddie Tinga. She was the third most wanted drug personality in the city and the seventh member of the Tinga drug gang who was arrested, according to the city government. – Rey Galupo, Ghio Ong, Non Alquitran