Elected official faces probe over alleged drug links

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 will investigate an elected official who reportedly has links with drug personalities in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City.

Leia Albiar, PDEA 7 information officer, said that suspected drug pusher Norman Cristobal had asked the official to help him and his wife Jovy in the illegal drug trade.

“We will verify the information from him,” Albiar said. She added that the official could be a drug protector.

Cristobal, 48, was caught in a drug bust in Ermita last Monday morning and yielded a kilo of suspected shabu with an estimated market value of P5 million. His wife Jovy, who is also known as Kyla, escaped arrest.

Early this month, Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta and seven councilors resumed office after being preventively suspended for six months for their alleged failure to witness a drug raid authorized by a search warrant in the village last November.

The operation last Monday needs no barangay officials as witnesses as it was a buy-bust.

The marking of evidence was held in Ermita, but the inventory was done at the PDEA office for security reasons.

Asked about Cristobal’s claims, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he is convinced that there are barangay officials in Ermita who are involved in illegal drug activities. “Of course, we all know that,” he said. Osmeña said that the alleged involvement of some barangay officials is the reason they were suspended.

Osmeña said the barangay officials also failed to stop the activities of known drug lords who are residents of the village, including Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria.

Although Secretaria was caught and killed in Banacon Island in Getafe, Bohol in May last year, it was reported that he is from Ermita and used to supply illegal drugs there and other areas in Cebu.

Aside from Ermita, Osmeña believes there are other barangays whose officials are involved in the illegal drug trade.

PDEA 7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz has directed his intelligence operatives to investigate Cristobal’s allegations.

PDEA agents will also look into the other connections of the Cristobals, whom they believed had been employed to act as couriers.

Cristobal was arrested after he sold five grams of crystal meth, locally known as shabu, to an undercover agent, whom the suspect knew in the past three weeks.

The Cristobals had been listed as high-value targets.

“The suspects engaged in illegal drug trade for quite some time already. They often refused to sell if the customer want only less than 50 grams and if they do not know the customer,” Albiar said.

Suspects will face complaints for violating Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Acts of 2002, which punishes selling of shabu. /