P100M shabu confiscated in Negros came from Malaysia

BACOLOD CITY — The more than P100 million worth of shabu recently seized by the Philippine Drug Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies in Negros Island was found to have come from Malaysia, according to PDEA Region 6 Director Emerson Margate.

Margate said that, based on information the PDEA-6 got, the packaging of the seized drugs were almost similar: The six kilos seized in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental (with a market value of P72 million); the P5.1 million shabu recovered at Barangay Singcang Airport, Bacolod City; and the two kilos of shabu (worth P23.6 million) confiscated in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.

These items also appeared to have passed through the backdoor from Malaysia to Zamboanga peninsula and transported to Negros, said Margate. “One of our problems is that not all ports are public, there are also private ones which are not accounted for, and it is not recorded who manages them,” he said.

Margate proposed that municipal or city governments should have the authority to inspect private ports in their areas, since there are no laws that govern them. He also cited the importance of K-9 dogs to prevent the entry of drugs in ports, in addition to the intelligence gathering with the help of the community.

In Negros Occidental, PDEA-6 used one K-9 dog when conducting random inspections at ports, he said. “Some ports here (in Negros Occidental) sometimes lack x-ray machines and K-9 dogs are very much movable, unlike x-rays.”

The series of anti-drug operations on Monday and Tuesday in Negros Occidental also led to the arrest of six more drug suspects, including a former member of the Bureau of Fire and Protection, and the recovery of P100,000 worth of shabu.

Nabbed were former fireman Ramonito Baricuatro, and five others: Allan Gomez, Kier John Ilao, Joaquin Depra in Kabankalan City; Manolito Juson in Himamaylan City; and John Mark Pacamo, a probationer in San Enrique, all in Negros Occidental.