Police vow to go after more “narco-politicians”

POLICE will run after more alleged narco-politicians.

This was the promise of Senior Supt. Jonathan Cabal, chief of the Regional Intelligence Division (RID-7) after their successful arrest of Thelma Nervida Sekiguchi, a barangay councilor of Tuburan Sur, Danao City.

He said Sekiguchi will not be the last local official involved in drugs that they will apprehend, saying they are currently monitoring other village officials whom they suspect to be narco-politicians.

“We have a substantial list of narco-politicians, but I can’t tell you how many. You will be finding out after we will operate (against them),” Cabal said.
Their list also includes officials who are on President Rodrigo Duterte’s list of narco-politicians.

Cabal urged these officials to stop their illegal activities and instead help them in their campaign against illegal drugs.

He said that they will not hesitate to operate against narco-politicians once they have enough evidence against them.

“The President and our regional director (Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino) told us to really go after them (narco-politicians). So we will not hesitate to file a case and go after them,” Cabal said.

Sekiguchi was among the officials on Duterte’s list. She was apprehended by RID-7 and the Danao City police last Wednesday evening.

Allegedly seized from her possession was at least 50 grams of suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), valued at P500,00 by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB).

She was the seventh incumbent official in Cebu arrested over the past two months.

From July to August, policemen in Cebu were able to arrest officials from different cities and municipalities in the province.

On July 4, Epifania Alvizo, barangay captain of Malabago, Badian town, and her alleged cohorts were arrested with several packs of suspected shabu worth more than P2 million in separate buy-bust operations conducted by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7).

On July 7, three municipal councilors of San Fernando town in southern Cebu, including the president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) of the town, were arrested in three separate raids by RID-7.

Arrested were San Fernando Councilors Edwin Villaver, Alfonso Donaire and Johnny Arrisgado.

Arrisgado, barangay captain of Magsico, sits at the Municipal Council as ex-officio member, being the president of the town’s ABC.

At past 6 p.m. of the same day, the Cebu Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) arrested Raul Mesa Cole Sr., a barangay councilman of Putat in Tuburan town.

On July 26, the PIB arrested former mayor and now Councilor Ricky Ramirez of Medellin town in an operation inside his residence in the town for possession of unlicensed firearms. Although only drug paraphernalia was confiscated from him, the police considered him as a high-value target.