Government engineer, mentor, 6 others fall in drug bust

COTABATO CITY — A government engineer and a public school teacher, along with six other people, were arrested while allegedly sniffing shabu in a lodging house in Tacurong City the other day.

Chief Inspector Raul Supiter, Tacurong police chief, said the suspects, including engineer Merriam Ceballos-Pelaez of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Nestor Porras, a teacher in Masiag, Sultan Kudarat, were allegedly using the lodging house as a safehouse and distribution center for illegal drugs and counterfeit peso bills.

Supiter said they would recommend to the Sultan Kudarat office of the DPWH to file an administrative case against Pelaez for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking.

"We have long been tracking them down until we found an opportunity to strike and arrest them while doing something which we can use in building up a very strong criminal case against them," Supiter said.

He said the raid, carried out with the help of local agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency led by PO2 Mario Vergadez, also resulted in the seizure of a desktop computer and other paraphernalia that the suspects allegedly used in fabricating fake P1,000 and P500 bills, as well as P20,000 worth of counterfeit bills.

Supiter said one of the suspects voluntarily yielded a 9-mm. Ingram machine pistol after sensing that the arresting team, who included civilian volunteers under the office of Tacurong City Mayor Lino Montilla, had surrounded their hideout and were about to use force to neutralize them.

The six other arrested suspects were identified as Al Borromeo, Darwin Cariño, Reyner Guimban, Bobing Bitamoro and his wife, Neneng, and Zaldy Ceballos.