Cops arrest man, but cohort managed to flee in Barili raids

POLICE operations were conducted against two men who were linked to the late police officer Ryan Quiamco, who was shot dead during a recent police operation in Talisay City.

Supt. Joie Yape Jr., Provincial Intelligence Branch chief, said Jonebert Saldo of Sitio Kamagayan, Barangay Malolos in Barili in southwestern Cebu, however, escaped the police dragnet.

However, another alleged cohort, Gerardo Basira, 40, was arrested after police served a search warrant against him.

Yape said they confiscated 1 .30 caliber garand rifle, .30 caliber carbine rifle and a black widow handgun with several ammunition, three packs of suspected shabu with an estimated value of P177,000.

In the operation against Saldo, police however, confiscated a pack of suspected shabu with an estimated value of P59,000, an air gun and P12,000 cash.

Yape said that Saldo and Basira are considered high-value targets, and they had been monitoring them for quite a while.

Yape also said that the two suspects are allegedly cohorts of the late Quiamco, whom President Rodrigo Duterte included in his list of drug suspects.

Basira, when sought for comment, denied the accusations against him and said that the shabu found in his house was not his.

Saldo’s wife said that she knew that her husband was a user, but she did not know that he was a suspected drug peddler.

Yape said that they secured a search warrant issued by Judge Jerry Dicdican of Branch 25 of the Regional Trial Court in Danao City.

He said with the search warrants, they then raided the suspects’ houses.