Local execs credited for seizure of P16 kilos shabu in Bayugan City

COTABATO CITY— Local officials' vigilance led to the seizure of 16 kilos of shabu from two dealers arrested in Butuan City, Agusan del Sur, by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and police on January 27.

Levi Ortiz, director of PDEA Region 13, and Brig. Gen. Christopher Abrahano of the Police Regional Office-13, credited Bayugan City Mayor Kirk Asis and local barangay officials for the successful operation, as reported in Cotabato City on Tuesday, January 28.

Ortiz and Abrahano said Monday’s entrapment operation in Purok 1 in Barangay Santa Irene, Bayugan City that resulted in the arrest of two traffickers and confiscation from them of 16 kilos of shabu, costing P108.8 million, was premised on tips by vigilant city officials and confidential informants aware of their large-scale distribution of narcotics in cities and towns in Region 13.

Senior members of the Bayugan City Peace and Order Council, led by Mayor Asis, have called for the immediate prosecution of the detained Octamar De Rama Demetrio, 32, and his 22-year-old cohort, Janray Demetrio Cala, for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Asis had reportedly assured officials of the PDEA-13 and the PRO-13 of his support in building airtight criminal cases against Demetrio and Cala. 

The two suspects yielded peacefully when PDEA-13 agents and operatives from different units of PRO-13 arrested them both after selling 16 kilos of shabu during a tradeoff on Monday in Barangay Santa Irene, a residential area in Bayugan City.