THERE was no letup in the anti-illegal drug campaign particularly for Cebu City police officers as they stepped up their operations in Cebu City on Christmas eve and Christmas day with a drug haul of at least P47.4 million of suspected shabu.
The two-day separate operations also led to the arrest of five suspects and the killing of a drug personality, whom police described as a high-value target.
On Dec. 24, Christmas eve, police officers from the Cebu City Police Office conducted separate buy-bust operations in three barangays: Duljo Fatima, Labangon and Kalubihan.
The operations led to a drug haul of P1,001,000 million worth of suspected shabu and netted five drug suspects.
But it was on Christmas day that police got the biggest drug haul in the two-day operations with the confiscation of P46.2 million worth of suspected shabu from three suspected drug couriers in separate operations.
At past 6 p.m., San Nicolas police officers raided the rented house of Rejie Boy Abesia in Sitio Cogon, Barangay Basak Pardo.
They arrested Abesia and confiscated illegal drugs found inside the house with an estimated value of P46,240,000.
Chief Insp. Henriz Bancoleta, San Nicolas Police chief who led the operation, said that Abesia was actually a resident of Concepcion St., Barangay Pasil, Cebu City.
Bancoleta said that with the information they gathered from Abesia, they conducted a follow-up operation which led to the arrest of Michael Ceniza, 39, and common-law wife, Remelyn Fernandez, 33, both residents of Barangay Pasil.
Ceniza and Fernandez were caught with several packs of suspected shabu during a buy-bust operation with an estimated worth of P108,000.
Ceniza and Fernandez were believed to be cohorts of Abesia.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, the director of Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said that the three suspected drug peddlers belong to a larger group that had been disposing shabu in Cebu.
He said that Abesia, Fernandez, and Ceniza were not the only drug couriers in their group that were currently in the region.
Sinas said he believed that the shabu taken from the three suspects were the same from those drugs from Manila.
A few hours from the arrest of Ceniza and Fernandez, police killed a drug suspect in a shootout in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City, at past 8 p.m. during a surveillance operation.
Layme Anubling, 30, pulled out a gun when he sensed a police officers were in the area and shot the police officers, said Chief Insp. Keith Allen
Andaya of the Punta Princesa Police Station.
Andaya said that they visited Sitio Upper Manol, Barangay Tisa, on Tuesday night for a surveillance operation.
They saw a group of individuals as they were about to park their vehicle on the parking area of a private establishment in Sitio Manol, the group of men sensed they were police officers and started to flee.
Anubling, however, pulled out a gun and started firing at the police officers, who fired back, wounding the suspect.
Anubling managed to run 400 meters from the area, but collapsed and died of his wounds on the body.
Andaya said that they recovered suspected shabu during a search on the body of the suspect with an estimated worth of P102,000.