Cebu City lolas nabbed: Poverty, boredom reasons for selling drugs

Cebu City.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — One sold drugs so she could buy her maintenance medicine, the other one sold and used shabu to cure her boredom.

These were the reasons why two lolas, a 74-year-old widow and a 63-year-old woman, landed in the illegal drug business and ended up getting arrested in two separate buy-bust operations on Tuesday and Wednesday in Cebu City.

Both are considered street-level drug pushers or street-level individuals by Cebu City policemen.

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First to fall was the 74-year-old widow, who was caught with .15 grams of suspected shabu during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City on October 8 at past 1 a.m. that day.

The widow from Barangay Duljo Fatima, Cebu City  was caught with a sachet of suspected shabu that had a market value of P1,020 at past 1 a.m. of Tuesday, October 8.

When asked why she sold illegal drugs, the widow said it was because of poverty.

“Nabuhat nako ang maong salaud gumikan sa kawad-on. Nga bisan pa man sa akong pagpamaligya og sari-sari, dili gihapon kini igo sa akong pang adlaw-adlaw nga gasto ingon man sa iyang maintenance sa high blood,” she told dyHP in an interview on October 10.

(I did this crime because of poverty. That even with my selling different things, this still is not enough for her daily needs including buying her maintenance medicine for high blood [hypertension].)

READ MORE: 2 women caught with P1.5-M ‘shabu’ in Taguig

The elderly widow was detained at the Labangon Police Station detention cell pending the filing of charges.

While the elderly widow claimed selling illegal drugs so that she could buy her maintenance medicine, the 63-year-old lola, on the other hand, told police that she got into the illegal drug business to cure her boredom.

This was what a 63-year-old woman from Barangay Pahina Central in Cebu City told Police Major Eric Gingoyon, Carbon Police Station chief, when she was caught in October 9 with 10 sachets of suspected shabu during a buy-bust operation.

Gingoyon said that the elderly woman told him that she would allegedly sell and use shabu in times when she would be bored.

The sachets of suspected shabu from the 63-year-old woman had an estimated market value of P54,000.

Gingoyon also said that they had been monitoring the lola for a while since reports had reached them about her being involved in the illegal drug business.

She was detained at the Carbon Police Station detention cell pending the filing of charges.