And we thought it was only in Cebu City where drug peddlers can do business beside police precincts.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided a drug den near a school in Barangay South Poblacion, San Fernando town in southern Cebu last Tuesday afternoon.
Aside from arresting suspected drug pusher Gringo Maalyao, his brother Crisologo and cohorts Joseph Billok and Jupiter Lawas, the NBI agents also seized a half-kilo of suspected drugs with an estimated value of P2 million and five firearms.
NBI-7 Director Ricardo Diaz confirmed to reporters that the drug den is located near the town’s police precinct.
“It’s a one-stop shop. People can buy drugs and use it right there,” Diaz said.
In this case, the customers were mostly students, whose parents begged the NBI to shut down the drug den. The operation is laudable, but a knee-jerk reaction to what was then an ongoing criminal operation that should have been solved even in the barangay level.
As it is, that incident is a solid slap in the face for the town’s police precinct and to a larger extent, the Cebu provincial police and the Police Regional Office (PRO-7).
What made the situation ludicrous was the admission by the town’s police chief, Senior Insp. Richard Gadingan, that Maalyao wasn’t in their watch list of criminals.
From his admission, people can suspect one of two things – either they’re plain stupid, which isn’t the case, or, some are in cahoots with Maalyao and his gang.
Gadingan’s excuse was that he and his men were too busy with security preparations for the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in Metro Cebu where their superiors had assigned most of them.
That they can’t even be bothered with checking their own backyard for any signs of criminality shows just how the police misplaces their priorities. That the parents had to go to the NBI for help also shows the level of mistrust these residents have toward their police force.
Senior Supt. Clifford Gairanod, Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) chief, said he ordered an investigation into the incident and even ordered the transfer of some town police chiefs who were either incompetent or underperforming — a belated reaction which may be excusable given that he’s only been in the post for a few weeks. One can understand perhaps that the police are always confronted with the perennial problem of inadequate resources and personnel shortage but this should not be done at the expense of neglecting their area of jurisdiction.
After the Sinulog and the IEC, police will be asked to gear up for this year’s elections and while they may be spread too thin, the public can only ask that they don’t neglect to maintain peace and order in their communities which is their immediate responsibility in the first place.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
