In Talisay City: Pushers using middlemen

CEBU, Philippines — Pushers in Talisay have come up with a new way of making sure they stay safe while carrying out their nefarious business.

According to Talisay City Police chief, Superintendent Marlu Conag, the new modus operandi of drug personalities in the city is to employ go-betweens or middlemen to deal with customers.

The pushers no longer wait for customers in the open but stay hidden. Their middlemen, who are familiar with their regular customers, wait in the parking areas of tricycles and pedicabs for “orders.” Once an order for drugs is made, the middlemen go to the pusher, get the corresponding amount of drugs, then sell it to the customer.

Conag admitted this new method is giving them a hard time doing buy-bust operations.

“Yung mga nakakabili lang sa loob eh ‘yung mga nakakakilala lang kaya mahirap na magbuy-bust. Di na sila nagbebenta kahit kanino,” Conag said.

To address this, policemen are widening background checks into arrested suspects to identify their associates. They also persuade arrested suspects to point them to their contacts.

Conag also said many concerned citizens personally message them through social media about who is involved in drugs.

However, Conag also said transactions in Tanke, the barangay with the highest drug activity, are dropping. In fact, for the first four months of this year, they only had a total of 90 arrests and elevated 114 drug-related cases to court.

He also said most of the pushers still remaining in their area are street-level pushers and not high-value targets.

“Nakikita namin eh, medyo we’re getting there. Noon pag-gabi, natatakot ‘yung mga taong maglakad-lakad, ngayon na na-arrest na ‘yung iba, medyo nagiging safe,” he said.

Meanwhile, 14 drug personalities, six of them pushers and the rest users, were arrested in a series of buy-bust operation by the Danao City police in the barangays of Taboc, Looc, and Poblacion on Sunday afternoon and evening.

The alleged pushers were identified by the police as Roque Batoon, 30; Donnalyn Bantiles, 23; Michael Gomez, 41; Elmira Vaflor, 26; Joan Sampan, 23; and Jovelyn Suson, 30.

The suspected users, who were caught in the act sniffing shabu during the operations, were Wilmar Ygot, 21; Jovey Laurel, 37; Miljun Maloloy-on, 21; Leonemer Rosalem; 25; Randy Andrade, 33; Jesus Tizon Jr., 36; Aldwin Manulat, 35; and Richard James Rosalijos, 24.

Superintendent Jaime Quiocho, Danao Police Station chief, said they recovered a total of 41 small packs of suspected shabu estimated at P26,550, and P1,500 in suspected drug money from the suspects during the operation

Quiocho said that, aside from Batoon, the arrested drug pushers were newly-identified drug personalities in their area.

All the arrested  suspects are now detained in Danao City Police Station lock-up cell pending the filing of charges against them for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Meanwhile in Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island, Lito Coli, 19, was arrested with a gun and three small packs of suspected shabu in Barangay Okoy Sunday afternoon.

Police Officer 2 Lauro Laurel said that earlier they received a report from a concerned citizen regarding an armed person. When policemen responded to the alarm, they found Coli who was bringing a 9mm revolver with live rounds.

When they frisked Coli they found the suspected shabu in the pocket of his shorts. The suspect is now detained in the Sta. Fe Police Station. —/BRP (FREEMAN)