Relatives help PDEA plot Basilan shabu dealer’s entrapment

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — It was his relatives and barangay officials who gave him away.

Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and operatives of the Lamitan City Police Station seized P34,000 worth of shabu from a dealer entrapped on Friday with the help of his own relatives.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the PDEA-BARMM, told reporters on Saturday that their agents and policemen immediately arrested Usman Johani Rabbani after selling to them P34,00 worth of shabu in a tradeoff on Friday at Sitio Talisay in Barangay Kulaybato in Lamitan City, Basilan.

Agents of PDEA-BARMM based in Basilan province and senior officials of the Basilan Provincial Police Office told reporters that it was close relatives of the 41-year-old Rabanni, no less, and barangay officials in Kulaybato who reported his shabu peddling activities, the primary basis for sting that led to his arrest.

The tipsters reportedly made clear to PDEA-BARM agents that their voluntary gesture was in support of the peacekeeping thrusts of the office of their city mayor, Roderick Furigay, and Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman.

The Lamitan City LGU had garnered six Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) citations from the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in the past seven years.

The DILG’s yearly grant of an SGLG award to deserving municipal, city and provincial governments is based on the peace and security programs, local community-empowerment initiatives, environmental protection efforts and anti-narcotics campaign of nominee-LGUs.