Saturday, May 10, 2003
Cuadra denies link with Lacson
By Claudine C. Dumalag
JOSE Kim “Boy” Cuadra, one of Western Visayas’ alleged drug lords, denied having links with Sen. Panfilo Lacson, former head of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (Paoctf).
In an interview with Bombo Radyo Friday, Cuadra said he has not ever met Lacson personally.
In fact, he added, he was arrested by orders of Lacson.
Cuadra, who denied the allegations against him, also said he doesn’t know the big-time drug dealer who was arrested in a raid on Thursday by members of Police Station 2, Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU), and 604th Regional Mobile Group, in Bacolod City.
The suspect was identified as Hector Gallego, 32, of BarangaySalvacion, Nueva Valencia, in Guimaras province.
Reports said that Cuadra reportedly financed Gallego in his illegal trade.
Cuadra, however, challenged Gallego to prove his allegations.
He added that he is not a drug financier and his family has a lending business in Bacolod.
“We allow people to borrow money from our lending business but not to finance the shabu dealers in Bacolod,” he said.
He also said even members of the local Philippine National Police (PNP) borrow money from him, but he refused to disclose their names.
Senior Supt. Vicente Ponteras, provincial police director, challenged Cuadra to identify policemen who reportedly borrowed money from their lending business.
This came after reports that the policemen who borrow money allegedly protect Cuadra.
Cuadra was arrested at the Caticlan airport in Aklan with his two close-in bodyguards identified as Zaphiro Mendoza and Raymundo Morales.
Police recovered 11.7 grams of shabu and drug paraphernalia from the suspects.
Cuadra admitted he was once a drug user and drug peddler, but he decided to stop and underwent detoxification.
(May 10, 2003 issue)
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