Policemen rescue boy used by father in drug pushing

Authorities have yesterday rescued a 12-year-old boy from illegal drug operators and arrested three persons in two drug buy-bust operations in Cebu City and Carcar City.

Members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-7 and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 struck at barangay Lorega-San Miguel where they arrested Nestor Tejas, 46, and rescued his own son that he reportedly employed as a drug carrier.

“What makes it different is we received reports that he is using his own son as drug carrier in all his operations which is also considered as child abuse and violation of the RA 7610,” Supt. Rex Derilo team leader of the Special Operations Team of the CIDG-7 said yesterday.

Tejas, a chorizo maker at the barangay public market, denied using his son a part of his illegal drug operation but said he does not know such was against the law.

The police seized from him 50 grams of suspected shabu, estimated to be worth between P500,000 and P700,000 in street price when repacked. They also recovered the two marked money, that was part of the boodle money, used in "buying" the shabu from Tejas.

SPO2 Delfin Bontuyan acted as the buyer who handed the cash to Tejas in the "deal." Tejas in turn ordered his son carrying a plastic container with chicken pellets to take out a pack of shabu from it. As Tejas handed the shabu to the police, he tried somehow to run away but policemen, strategically positioned in different areas, collared him.

Tejas, when presented to the media yesterday, denied being a large-scale drug pusher, insisting that it was his first time to engage in drug dealings because of financial needs. He pointed instead at his neighbor, he only identified as Loglog, as the one who supplied him with the drugs for a P150 commission.

The police has already started preparing the filing of charges against Tejas for selling shabu, in violation of Republic Act 9165, and for using his son in the illegal activity, in violation of RA 7610. The boy meanwhile was turned over to the DSWD.

In a separate operation at Carcar City, PDEA operatives arrested a couple in barangay Guadalupe Wednesday evening and confiscated from them five packs of suspected shabu.

The couple, Efren Gellica, 38 and Manolita, 36, fell to the PDEA poseur buyer after they handed a pack of shabu worth P300.

Jessie Tabanao, assistant spokesman of PDEA-7, told The Freeman that they first got information that the Gellica couple are level-2 drug pushers, a claim that they however denied.  –Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE