3 DAVAO SOLDIERS TRAINING FOR PROMOTION CAUGHT IN CEBU CITY 'DRUG DEN'
Military official says soldiers may face dismissal from service Suspects were undergoing training for promotion when caught
Three soldiers from Davao City who are in Cebu for training were caught for alleged possession of drug paraphernalia during a police operation against illegal gambling. A team from the Guadalupe Police Station was checking a report about a game of hantak when they “chanced upon” an alleged drug den, where they arrested Corporals Joar Francisco, 34, Edrelle Bayles, 35, and George Gutierrez, 35, all from the Philippine Army. They all declined to be interviewed. The initial police report said that among the items taken from the three were lighters, three handmade tubes, and a piece of tinfoil, the kind typically used by those who consume shabu. They are likely to face an administrative inquiry by the military, which could cost them their jobs.
Three members of the Philippine Army will face dismissal from service after they were caught with drug paraphernalia during an anti-illegal gambling operation in Sitio Yoreco, Barangay Guadalupe last Saturday afternoon.
Corporals Joar Francisco, 34, Edrelle Bayles, 35, and George Gutierrez, 35, all from Davao City, were arrested at 2:15 p.m. inside a makeshift hut that doubled as a drug den.
“That area was noted for numerous illegal games like hantak and tong-its. So when we conducted the operation, we chanced upon them inside the drug den,” Senior Insp. Elisandro Quijano, chief of the Guadalupe Police Station, said.
The police conducted the operation after a resident called the station about individuals playing hantak, a local coin game.
Quijano said that some of the persons caught with the military men were having a pot session.
They did not resist arrest, Quijano said.
Confiscated from their possession were three lighters, three handmade tubes and tin foil used as funnel.
Also arrested were Joji Ben- tulan, 40; Riel Gabijan, 49; Rochelle Perez, 30; and Reynaldo Bayno, 50.
Police recovered two plastic packs of shabu and drug paraphernalia from them.
The three military men are undergoing training at the Central Command in Camp LapuLapu in Barangay Apas for their promotion. They refused to be interviewed.
Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, PRO 7 deputy regional director for operations, said officials from the Armed Forces of the Philippines visited his office to get the details of the case for their own administrative investigation.
A military official, who asked not to be named, said the three corporals may face dismissal from service in accordance with Philippine Army laws.
“They’ll surely be dismissed, not like in the police where there is due process. In the AFP, if you face a case outside (the military court), you’ll be dismissed,” he said.
Police already filed complaints for possession of drug paraphernalia against them with the City Prosecutor’s Office yesterday afternoon.