Tom treats 10 cops to lunch for successful drug busts

CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmena treated to lunch on Black Saturday police station chiefs from Pardo, Mambaling, Punta Princesa Police precincts and stations and seven of other police officers involved in the anti-illegal drug operations which netted P7.3 million of illegal drugs in the past few days.

Osmeña said that this was his way of thanking the officers for their responsiveness in eradicating the presence of illegal drugs in Cebu City.

“It is a real sacrifice, what their doing. They are working really hard,” said Osmena, who treated the police officers in a restaurant in Cebu City.
Chief Insp. Henrix Bancoleta, Punta Princesa Police chief; Chief Insp. Regino Maramag, Pardo Police Precinct chief; and Chief Insp. Randy Caballes, Mambaling Police Precinct chief; and seven of the police officers involved in the buy-bust operations from Holy Wednesday to Good Friday showed up for lunch with the Mayor and three other city officials.

Bancoleta, who has only been assigned as chief of Punta Police Station for 11 days, said that the commendation of the city mayor had raised their morale and motivated them to further intensify their operations against illegal drugs.

“As instructed by our City Director (Joel Doria), we have to intensify operations especially on holidays,” said Bancoleta.
The three police station chiefs led the joint operation on Good Friday where 400 grams of suspected shabu estimated to be worth P4.7 million were confiscated in a buy-bust operation.

Maramag also led an earlier operation which resulted to the arrest of a student caught selling P2.5 million worth of illegal drugs in Inayawan Barangay Pardo on Holy Wednesday.

With millions worth of illegal drugs seized within Cebu City, Osmeña said that it might sound impossible to completely eliminate the presence of drugs.

But, the mayor said that he believed that the supply of illegal drugs being peddled in the country came from China.

He said that the only way to stop these drugs from entering the country would be impose stricter policies for shipments to the country.

“Once the drugs get in to our system, it is really hard because murag cancer nga mospread na gyod siya ba (it is like cancer that spreads throughout the system),”said Osmeña.

“It’s good that we stop it while its intact [at the ports]. But now that it goes to our society, we have to hunt it down literally house to house, sitio to sitio, barangay to barangay,” Osmeña added.

The other officials who also attended the lunch were Cebu City Councilor Margot Osmeña, the Mayor’s wife; Councilor Dave Tumulak, deputy mayor for police matters; Councilor Sisinio Andales, deputy mayor for labor and employment.