Nearly 300 drug users, pushers yield to police

Cebu Provincial Board member Carmen R. Durano-Meca, Cebu Provincial Anti-drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) Director listens to Snr. Supt. Eric Noble, Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA).

About 291 drug users and pushers surrendered to the police in the four towns of Camotes Islands two weeks after the police chiefs in these areas were replaced due to their mediocre performance in the campaign against illegal drugs.

“Maganda yan. Ako ay natuwa. Dapat magtrabaho lang sila ng magtrabaho (That’’ good. I am happy for what they have done. All they have to do is to continue working),” said Senior Supt. Eric Noble, Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) chief.

He said it is important to intensify the war on illegal drugs since Camotes is near Albuera town in Leyte province.

Albuera is the turf of Kerwin Espinosa, the alleged drug lord in Eastern Visayas who arrived in the country last Friday.

“Drug users and pushers should not wait to be caught by the police. Kasi kung mas marami magsurrender, mas maganda, (The more people who’d surrender, the better),” Noble said.

Senior Insp. Janus Giangan, chief of police of San Francisco town, Insp. Sigmund Freud Cruz (Tudela town), Insp. Jade Sumugat (Poro town) and Insp. Emmanuel Rabaya (Pilar town), were told to report to the Regional Public Safety Battalion.

The new police chiefs were Senior Insp. Philip John Libres (San Francisco town), Senior Insp. Cecilio Pañares (Tudela town), Senior Insp. Roberto Hugo (Poro town) and Insp. Cesar Carlos Alburo (Pilar town).

Elsewhere, 137 bulletproof vests were distributed to police offices in Central Visayas after yesterday’s flag-raising ceremony at the Police Regional Office headquarters.

At the Capitol, the Cebu Provincial Anti-drugs Abuse Office (CPADAO) launched yesterday its projects for drug surrenderers.

CPADAO chief Carmen Durano-Meca said the programs will help rehabilitate underage drug users by providing them with alternative livelihood.

She said based on their data, 1,412 of the 34,235 drug surrenderers in the province were minors.

In Mandaue City, a job order employee of the Mandaue City government that was arrested by police in a drug bust last Friday was fired from his job.

Mayor Luigi Quisumbing asked Councilor Nilo Seno to replace the messenger assigned to his office, saying he cannot be allowed to continue working in government.

Quisumbing said he is coordinating with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the Department of Health (DOH) and their City Health Department to conduct random drug tests on city government employees.

In Talisay City and Minglanilla town, several drug surrenderers were arrested in separate drug busts last Sunday evening.
Talisay City police arrested a certain Jomar Omayan of Barangay Tangke and seized from his possession 28 small sachets containing shabu worth P7,000.

In Barangay Guindarohan, Minglanilla town, police arrested 23-year-old Joshua Saavedra, who yielded 10 small sachets containing shabu.