Cebu City police seize P9.3M shabu in a week

Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, Cebu City Police chief, enumerates the accomplishment of the Cebu City police on the first week of March during a press briefing at the CCPO office on March 8. | Pegeen Maisie Sararaña

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City police have confiscated 1.3 kilos of suspected shabu worth P9.3 million on the first week of this month.

Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, Cebu City Police Office chief, said that aside from the illegal drugs confiscated, they also arrested 38 drug personalities with eight of them considered high-value targets while the rest were street-level pushers.

High-value targets are those who could dispose at least 500 grams of illegal drugs in a week.

He said that the 1.3 kilos of illegal drugs they hauled for the week was worth P9,264,116.

Carlo Tude of Barangay Ermita, Cebu City is caught with more than a kilo of suspected shabu during a buy-bust operation on the evening of March 5, 2021 in the barangay. | Photo courtesy of CCPO

Ligan said their biggest catch of the week was a suspected drug courier, Carlo Tude, last March 5 in Barangay Ermita where they confiscated more than a kilo of shabu from the suspect.

Tude later told police that his alleged contact in purchasing his supply of illegal drugs was an inmate of the Cebu City Jail.

Ligan said they were still verifying the information that Tude had given them.

READ: Ermita buy-bust: P7M shabu seized; suspected drug courier nabbed

Aside from the anti-illegal drug operations, Ligan said that they also conducted anti-illegal gambling operations, which were mostly in hillside barangays, and arrested 52 persons.

He said that the most common forms of illegal gambling that they had encountered in their operations were “tigbakay” or illegal cockfighting, “hantak” or toss-coin game and the illegal “swertres”.

“The most common nga atong nadakpan like yesterday, Sunday (March 7), is tigbakay. Daghan gyud ang nagtibakay. Nunot niana, violation na pud na sa health protocols nato. Daghan gyud nadakpan og tigbakay nato sa mga barangay sa syudad, Wala didto sa mga bukirang dapit,”said Ligan.

(The most common of the illegal gambling that we raided, like yesterday, Sunday (March 7), is tigbakay or illegal cockfighting. There are many tigbakay or illegal cockfighting held. Aside from that, they also violated the health protocols of the city. Many have been arrested for engaging in tigbakay here in the barangays in the city. And these raids were not even in the mountain barangays.)

Ligan also said that they had arrested two most wanted persons in the first week of March. 

He said they were part of 15 wanted persons arrested on that period of time.

They also confiscated four loose firearms with one person arrested for possession of an illegal firearm.

On the enforcement of local ordinances in Cebu City, Ligan said that they apprehended 638 violators, who were turned over to the Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification, and Enhancement (PROBE) and were held in a holding area in Barangay Tejero also in the first week of March.

Last Sunday, alone, March 7,  Ligan said they arrested 23 individuals during their monitoring and enforcing of the local ordinances in the mountain barangays. 

He said that they inspected a number of establishments in these mountain barangays to find out if they had complied with the liquor ban of the city.

He said the establishments they inspected complied with the liquor ban order imposed by the city government.

READ: Liquor ban imposed once again in Cebu City