Time is running out for suspected drug dealer Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz, who has not only proven elusive for Cebu police but can actually move about freely with no arrest warrant to his name.
Diaz himself said as much during a radio interview when he told the program host that he wanted to start a new life. He also apologized to whoever he hurt during his reign as one of the top, if not the top, drug dealer in Central Visayas.
Why he remains scot-free, only the police can answer definitely. That he managed to communicate with barangay officials and escaped a drug raid at his compound in one of Cebu City’s barangays showed that he is someone not to be trifled with, a man with some wealth and deep connections to the authorities.
But the shootout in Getafe, Banacon Island in Bohol province that resulted in the deaths of suspected drug dealer Rowen Secretaria and his alleged cohorts as well as the surrender of other top drug traffickers in Cebu made Diaz nervous enough to allow himself to be interviewed so he can send his surrender feelers to the police.
Or is he? The way he’s talking, Diaz said he is willing to be tapped as an asset to track down other drug dealers and he didn’t exactly mention anything about surrender. That suggests that he wants to weasel out of prison time in exchange for assistance.
So what made him think he can walk out of his old life carrying a deal with the police? In fact why wasn’t he issued an arrest warrant when last year’s police raid at his compound produced millions of pesos’s worth of drugs?
That raid alone justifies issuing an arrest warrant against him, and now Chief Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, Police Regional Office Central Visayas chief, wants Diaz to submit an affidavit detailing his admission before any talks of his surrender commence.
For all his connections, Diaz realizes that he will be one of many marked men by the incoming Duterte administration which has declared a war against illegal drugs, and thus he cannot afford to dictate his terms of surrender to the police.
In fact it’s not a question of whether or not he surrenders. It’s just fine either way for the police since President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has given them practically carte blanche authority to go after drug lords and their minions.
If Diaz and his kind don’t surrender, they could find themselves floating at the waters off Manila Bay or some such body of water as Duterte himself warned when he told Filipino voters that he will fatten the fish with the remains of the suspected drug lords.
If Duterte and Manila-based law enforcement agencies don’t get him, then probably the Cebu City police or the Cebu provincial police will. Again Diaz has only two weeks to decide whether or not to surrender. And if he and other drug dealers value their lives, they better do.
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