Barok under scrutiny

IS Alvaro Alvaro alias “Barok” still on top of the illegal drug trade in Cebu, using a mobile phone inside the provincial jail to contact his members?

This was the question that Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO 7) wants answered amid reports that Barok, while detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), has stayed in contact with his family and underlings in the illegal drug trade.

Senior Insp. Alejandro Batobalonos, Danao police chief, yesterday asked jail authorities to investigate why Emma Alvaro, Barok’s mother, was able to immediately place a cellphone call to her jailed son to inform the latter of the death of his younger brother Medz in a shootout with Danao policemen at 10 p.m. Thursday.

Batobalonos said Emma was at the Danao City District Hospital when one of his policemen overheard the cellphone conversation between the mother and her son believed to be Barok informing him of the death of Medz and an alleged cohort, Ronnie Cuyos Castro, who were wounded in a police operation and declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

Batobalonos said Emma’s threat that she could order her son to have all policemen in Danao City killed should also be given weight since armed men did attack the police station just hours after she made the threat.

CPDRC Jail Warden Romeo Manansala yesterday said it was unlikely that Barok has a cellphone but he was aware that the latter was upset over the death of his brother.

“Hapit na di motingog. Dili siya patandog. Di na siya hapit mo estorya. Nagsige ug hinuktok, layo ug tinan-awan (He has not been talking. He did not want to be bothered. He has been morose and staring afar),” Manansala said.

He said Barok could have heard the news over the radio since inmates are allowed to have transistor radios in their cells.

Asked if Barok might have access to a mobile phone which he can use to call family members outside, Manansala neither confirmed nor denied. He said though that when Barok was still in an isolated cell, they searched him and he did not have a mobile phone. “Ambot lang kaha karon nga naa raba daghan makalusot (I’m not sure now that he’s already in a regular cell since there have been reports of cellphones getting inside the jail),” Manansala said.

“If indeed he has a cellphone, we will put him again to a solitary confinement,” he said.

CDN tried to interview Barok inside his cell yesterday afternoon but Manansala said Barok did not want to talk to anyone.