Ex-maritime officer arrested for illegal drug trade in Lapu

A former PNP Maritime officer was arrested the other night by elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for possession and sale of 18 packs of shabu in barangay Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City.

Now detained at the PDEA headquarters is Michael Monteron Borbon, 38, a resident of Humay-humay, barangay Gun-ob. He was found out to be a former member of the PNP Maritime Unit.

Borbon’s handler, a certain Manoy Roger, also a resident of the said place, escaped arrest during the buy-bust operation.

The team led by PO3 George Cansancio of PDEA-7 conducted a series of surveillance in the said area for over a month.

“Ang nagsilbing tag-iya gyod ani mao to si Manoy Roger. Kaning suspect igo ra ni gibinlan pero kusog lang kaayo ni ang iyang baligya kay mas barato iyang hatag,” PDEA officer Jessie Tabanao said.

The two pieces of small-sized plastic packs allegedly containing shabu were the subject of the buy-bust operation, while the 16 small packs of shabu were recovered from Borbon’s possession.

However, Borbon denied he owns the 18 packs of shabu. He reasoned out that he was just playing “tong-its” (a card game) when the PDEA agents conducted the buy-bust operation. But Borbon admitted to have already stopped selling shabu for over six months now.

“Dugay na man kaayo ko niundang. Dili sab diay ko hatagan og higayon nga moundang nga dugay naman ko wala aning negos-yoha?” Borbon said.

But Tabanao confirmed that the suspect is still “very much active” in the illegal drug trade in his place. In fact, the PDEA team showed that they were also able to recover from the suspect the P200 marked money used in the operation. — Ramil V. Ayuman/MEEV