MANDAUE DRUG BUSTS: 21 arrested Councilman’s son nabbed

The Mandaue City police went to work after receiving the order for the Philippine National Police to resume operations in the war against drugs on Friday.

The Mandaue police netted 21 drug suspects including a son of an incumbent barangay official in separate buy-bust operations over the weekend.

Operatives of the Canduman police station arrested Ivy John Bihag, 27, in a buy-bust operation last Sunday in Barangay Cubacub, Mandaue City.

Bihag is the son of former Cubacub barangay captain and incumbent councilman Edgar Bihag.

“Since he is a son of an elected (village) official, we can consider him a high-impact target,” MCPO director Senior Supt. Roberto Alanas told reporters yesterday in a press conference.

Alanas added that the younger Bihag has long been included in their drug watch list and was put under surveillance to confirm his illegal drug activities.

Alanas said that Ivy John was the only high-impact target among the 21 suspects arrested from March 4 to March 6.

The 20 other drug suspects were included in Mandaue’s drug watch list and some of them were previous drug surrenderers.

Recovered from the possession of the drug suspects were a total of 96 small and medium packs of suspected shabu, assorted drug paraphernalia, one loaded revolver, a hand grenade and P2,600 worth of buy-bust money.

Cubacub Barangay Captain Almario Bihag, Ivy John Bihag’s cousin, said that Ivy John was also job order employee, who served under the Solid Waste Management of the barangay.

The barangay captain said that Ivy John has long been using drugs and had only recently started selling shabu.

As a way of restoring him back to the community, he the barangay captain tried to get Ivy John to serve under different offices in their barangay to distract him from drug dependence, but to no avail.

Ivy John was also subjected under Tokhang by the police, but he returned to drug use after a couple of months.

“It was painful for his father (Edgar) that his son ended up in jail, but he can’t do anything about it anymore because it was his son’s own accord that led him to it. We did not fail in reminding him to turn away from his illegal activities,” Almario told Cebu Daily News.

Almario, who also chairs the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (BADAC), said that they are also tracing the whereabouts of Ivy John’s cohorts who are still at large and are operating in different areas in Mandaue.