Husband-and-wife tandem caught peddling drugs

The Guadalupe Police Precinct in Cebu City presented the packets of shabu valued at P38,000 seized before midnight of Jan. 4, 2019 from suspected drug peddlers Basilio Baclaan, 52, and wife Virginia Morga, 46, during a drug bust outside his residence in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Regret came too late for this couple.

“Ulahi na ang pagbasol.”

These were the words uttered by Basilio Baclaan, 52, as he was handcuffed along with his wife, Virginia Morga, 46, just outside their house in Sitio Langub, Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.

Baclaan, a mason, and Morga were caught in the act of selling shabu (crystal meth) in a buy bust operation staged by the drug enforcement unit of the Guadalupe Police Precinct shortly before midnight of January 4.

  Senior Inspector Dexter Basirgo, chief of the Guadalupe police, said they learned of the couple’s illegal drugs activities from a post on the community billboard of the Cebu City Police Office’s (CCPO) Facebook page  “Itug-an ni CD.” 

“Itug-an ni CD (Tell it to the City Director),” is a program initiated by Senior Superintendent Royina Garma, CCPO chief, urging citizens to inform the police of any suspicious activities in their neighborhood, particularly those involving the illegal drugs trade. 

 Basirgo said the couple was then placed under surveillance and it took five days before they got a chance to finally catch them.

several small packets of shabu valued at P38,000 were seized from them during the drug bust, said Basirgo.

Baclaan, now in detention along with Morga at the Guadalupe police, admitted his drug peddling activity, saying he did it on “consignment basis.” 

He revealed that for every P13,000 of drugs he could sell, he would get P5,000.

He, however, was mum about the identity of the source of drugs he was peddling./elb