Couple with LPG refilling operation busted
A couple was arrested while 14 liquefied petroleum gas refilling tanks, more than 200 empty butane canisters and butane containers were seized in the Ouano Wharf, Barangay Looc, Mandaue City, last Sunday afternoon.
Wellyn Boy Bacamo, 23, and his live-in partner Rijane Mary Galo, 21, both residents of Zone 2, Barangay Canduman, were arrested around 3:45 p.m., for allegedly selling and distributing the LPG-refilled butane canisters in the area, said Senior Inspector Marvin Fegarido, chief of Mandaue City Police Office-City Intelligence Branch.
Fegarido said the couple was arrested after they received reports through a “texthang” or text-hangyo, an initiative created by MCPO. A concerned citizen reported the couple was engaged in the illegal manufacturing of butane canisters in the area.
Three digital weighing scales and seven notebooks were also confiscated from the couple. The notebooks reportedly contained records of their transactions and assorted receipts from the said illegal business.
Bacamo and Galo are detained in the MCPO Station 1, and both will face a complaint under the Presidential Decree 1865 for illegal trading of petroleum products.
The city government has an existing ordinance sponsored by former city councilor Jimmy Lumapas and approved in 2015 prohibiting the sale and distribution of butane canisters.
The seized canisters will be turned over to the Department of Energy-7 for proper disposal.