EXPLAIN OPERATION OF DRUG DEN
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 wants the officials of Barangay Carreta, Cebu City to explain why a drug den is operating just behind the barangay hall.
PDEA 7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz said there were no barangay officials who cooperated with them when they conducted a raid in the area early this month.
“We would let them explain and if we find basis then we will file a case against them because that is dereliction of duty,” he said.
Ruiz said they waited for the officials to report to their office about what happened but they did not show up.
Operatives conducted a buybust operation in the area last Feb. 1 and arrested a 17-year-old girl and four others.
It yielded P100,000 worth of illegal drugs.
Among the 48 lowland barangays in the city, Ruiz said only Tisa and Quiot submitted a list of drug personalities to them. Cebu City has 80 villages.
Quiot Barangay Captain Pancrasio Esparis visited Ruiz yesterday afternoon and submitted 210 names of drug personalities in his village.
Last month, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas ordered the preventive suspension of Ermita barangay captain Felicisimo Rupinta and seven councilors for six months for allegedly failing to cooperate with PDEA during a drug raid last Nov. 6.
Ruiz then said it serves as a wake-up call to village officials to cooperate with them in the government’s fight against illegal drugs. /