2 SAP RECEIVERS FALL IN DRUG OPS IN BULACAN

TWO beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program ( SAP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development were among nine suspects arrested in anti- illegal drug operations in various towns of Bulacan province on Thursday, police said on Friday.

Maj. Wendel Ariñas, acting Plaridel town police chief, identified the SAP beneficiaries as Jonathan Galvez, 34, of Barangay

Sto. Niño, and Benjamin Bonus, 49, of Barangay Agnaya, both from the town.

Gomez and Bonus were collared in a drug sting in Barangay Tabang around 4 p. m. and admitted that they were both SAP beneficiaries.

According to Ariñas, the suspects were caught in the act of selling a sachet of shabu to an undercover agent.

Seized from Gomez and Bonus

were 30 sachets of shabu with an estimated street value of P20,500, buy- bust money and the social amelioration card receipt of Galvez.

Col. Lawrence Cajipe, Bulacan police provincial director, reminded cash aid beneficiaries that the national government was trying its best to allocate SAP and other funds to low- income earners affected by the coronavirus pandemic and advised them to spend the money that they received only for essential needs.

In buy- busts in other towns of Bulacan, seven drug peddlers were arrested in Sta Maria, Norzagaray, Marilao and City of San Jose del Monte also on Thursday.

Cajipe identified the seven suspects as Ronaldo del Rosario Jr., Jericho Cecilio, Rafael Perez, Isagani Cariño, Jennyfer Bernardo, Sonny Angeles Ramos and

Jeffrey Marasigan Visconde.

Seized from them were 11 sachets of shabu and buy- bust money.

The seven suspects and the confiscated pieces of evidence were brought to the Bulacan Crime Laboratory.

Cajipe said they would be unrelenting in their crackdown on illegal drugs and all forms of criminality amid the pandemic.

FREDERICK SILVERIO