BAGUIO CITY – Four alleged drug suspects were successively arrested by combined police operatives and anti-narcotics operatives during the implementation of a search warrant inside the Traveller’s Inn along Naguilian road here Sunday morning.
Police authorities identified the arrested individuals as Alfredo Gallardo Balneg alias “Jun”, 40, former police officer and front desk officer of the said place; Javier Wakat Gaspili, 32; Emily Silao Signey, 20; and Irene Cripzle Silao, 18, resident of KM4. Purok 3, Asin Rd., Baguio City.
Confiscated from the suspects during the raid were 20 sachets of suspected shabu weighing approximately 8.4 grams with a Dangerous Drug Board (DDB) value of P50,400.00, 11 lighters, one (1) hand grenade, two (2) black sling bags, three (3) containers, six (6) cellular phones, one (1) caliber .25 pistol with SN 98680 with one (1) magazine loaded with five (5) ammunitions, three (3) improvised drug paraphernalia, and one (1) scissor.
The arrested individuals were subsequently detained at the Baguio City jail after the filing of illegal possession of prohibited drugs and paraphernalia and illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges against them.
The raiding team was composed of elements from the regional anti-illegal drugs special operations task group, city anti-illegal drugs special operations task group, Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) intelligence branch and BCPO Station No. 1.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan commended the raiding team for a job well done to help reduce the proliferation of illegal drugs in the city and arrest the personalities involved in the circulation of prohibited drugs that tend to significantly affect the city’s peace and order situation.
It can be recalled that the Cordillera office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) reported that 36 out of the city’s 128 barangays are drug affected which warrants the implementation of stringent anti-illegal drugs programs and projects to reduce the impact of illegal drugs to the behaviour of the youth and the stability of the city’s good peace and order situation.
“Our law enforcers must have to be on their toes to address the city’s worsening drug problem in order to sustain the city’s good peace and order situation. We have to closely work with our barangay officials in order to immediately reduce the proliferation of illegal drugs in the different parts of the city,” Domogan stressed.
Domogan said the city is considered the transhipment of illegal drugs, particularly marijuana from the remote villages in Benguet which are transported to the lowlands, and shabu which are transported from the lowlands to the different parts of the Cordillera.
From 19 drug affected barangays in 2013, the PDEA-CAR reported the number of drug affected barangays in the city last year increased to 36 and that the same is expected to increase if city officials will not be consistent in their anti-illegal drug interventions.
By Dexter A. See
