Arrested mom says she sold drugs for her kids

I did it for my children.”

A tearful 49-year-old  Jerami Matugas said this as she explained why she sold illegal drugs.

Matugas, a single mother, said this was her last resort to provide for her five children and her nine-month-old grandchild.

“Now, I’m worried that I’m not at their side because they don’t have someone to provide for them,” said Matugas in Cebuano.

She was detained at the Cebu City Police Station 2 pending the filing of charges against her.

Matugas, whom police described as a big-time illegal drug supplier in southern Cebu, was arrested last Friday in barangay Poblacion, Badian town.

The raiding team from  the Regional Special Operations Group Central Visayas, served the search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 8 Judge

Macaundas Hadjirasul  at 9 a.m. that day. They said they caught Matugas  repacking shabu  inside her house.

Police said Matugas’ customer, 75-year-old Beatriz Secretaria identified Matugas as her supplier and tagged her as the “Queen.”

Secretaria was arrested last July in Carcar City with at least P300,000 worth of illegal drugs.

Matugas was a  former resident of barangay Awayan, Carcar City where she allegedly started her illegal drug trade.

Matugas told CDN how she ended up selling illegal drugs.

She separated from her husband 10 years ago and  had to rais her five children alone.

She took on several odd jobs and  went to Malaysia to work as a domestic helper.

But the work there was hard and she returned to Cebu less than year later.

When I returned to  Carcar city , she took odd jobs to feed my kids and send  them to school, she said in Cebuano.

“I rented a P10-per-day stall in the public market and sold  puto-sikwate (hot chocolate and rice cakes) at first. But I stopped selling  because I couldn’t bond with my children anymore,” she said in Cebuano.

The business required her to get up early and get home late.

“When I leave home in the early morning my children are asleep, and when I arrive home late at night, they are already asleep,” she said.

So she shifted to selling cooked food,  and later  slippers and sandals.

But  the money she earned from those ventures was not enough to provide for her family. Then an acquaintance referred her to somebody in the drug business.

“I was only referred by an acquaintance. But  I just deliver the packs to customers. I have no vices, I never even tried using illegal drugs. I don’t even smoke or gamble. I just went into this for my kids,” she said.

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