In a scene from the action movie “Marked for Death”, a gym teacher asked Steven Seagal’s cop character why he retired. He replied that, as much as he tried, the drug menace simply cannot be stopped.
“It’s like you’re facing a leaking dam. You plug one hole with your finger, another comes out. You plug that hole with another finger and still another one comes out. You plug all the holes with your fingers, with your toes and with your tongue but the water keeps on rushing,” Seagal’s character said.
He went on to say “the way I figured it you just go home and mind your own business. And then, when trouble knocks on your order, you go straight to the source and you bite its head off.”
Seagal’s character didn’t take long before he got into trouble with drug dealers and like every action movie, he always came out on top. Sadly, only his character’s description of the drug menace bears any semblance to actual reality as can perhaps be seen in last Monday’s drug raid at the residence of a big time supplier in barangay Yati, Liloan town.
Barangay officials and neighbors of Noel Codeniera said they didn’t suspect anything amiss until the first few shots were fired in a confrontation with police raiders.
It’s hard to believe that word doesn’t get around about who’s the source of drugs in a municipality where clannish ties are common.
There were earlier signs of unusual activity. Codeniera had freqent visitors day and night. But he was a friendly neighbor, generous in giving help to those in need, a shield of goodwill.
Relatives said they knew Codeniera only as a passenger jeepney operator. But he kept a secret base of operations in the basement, entered only through a concrete trap door.
It had closed circuit TV cameras and even motion sensors, which puts the present security setup in pawnshops and money courier outlets to shame.
Who was Codeniera’s supplier? Who else were part of the marketing web of shabu?
While we laud the Cebu provincial police for the arrest, the Liloan raid was a disturbing indicator of how well organized the drug trade in Cebu is.
We still don’t have a full picture of how formidable are drug syndicates operating in the province and the rest of Central Visayas, but we don’t have to look far to see where its tentacles reach. Liloan town, a first class municipality 19 kilometers north of Cebu city, is still part of an expanded Metro Cebu or Mega Cebu.
The drug menace may just be operating under the radar of authorities.
The fight isn’t over. Communities where this pernicious trade operates should be ready to take that fight straight to the doorsteps of dealers, whose money and connections won’t keep them safe from an alert and vigilant citizenry.
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