Tuesday, October 24, 2006 100 cops raid Ermita By Jovy S. Taghoy & Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporters
A SIMULTANEOUS raid in three sitios in Barangay Ermita carried out by at least 100 policemen from a combined team of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) yielded 34 illegal gambling machines, assorted packs of shabu, and a firearm.
Twelve men, including three minors, were arrested after they were caught playing video carrera and mole-mole.
One was caught in a shabu raid in his house and another one was arrested for possession of a .38 caliber revolver.
Police, however, failed to arrest two suspected drug pushers, including Pacita “Bebot” Tude, who were among the subjects of the operation. Pacita was not around when the operatives raided her house.
Pacita is the mother of Sangguniang Kabataan chairman Carlo Magno E. Tude, 21, who was arrested last Oct. 2 in a buy-bust by the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB).
CIIB Chief Pablo Labra II, Senior Insp. George Ylanan of the Vice Control Section and Drug Enforcement Unit and Chief Insp. Arnel Banzon, chief of the Mobile Patrol Group, Special Weapons and Tactics and Crime Suppression Unit led their men in scouring the sitios of Bato, Warwick Barracks and Ermita Beach at 5 a.m. yesterday.
Forty rookie policemen who are on field training program and members of the barangay intelligence network also helped in the operation.
Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta also brought his tanods to assist the police.
Hours after the raid, Mayor Tomas Osmeña warned Rupinta that he should answer for video carrera operations in his area.
Osmeña said he may eventually sanction Rupinta if illegal gambling machines continue to operate in Ermita.
“I’m just going to give him a warning that he should be accountable for any reemergence of video carrera in his barangay. (If it continues) you won’t be friends with the mayor anymore, and that’s a painful sanction,” the mayor said.
He told a news conference yesterday that he believes video carrera operations would not prosper if barangay and police officials are not bribed.
“It’s very hard for video carrera to prosper without bribing barangays officials or the police, that’s what I truly believe in. You can get away with one machine here and there, but 30? No,” Osmeña said.
In a phone interview, Rupinta said he has not heard of any report that his barangay officials are involved in video carrera operations or have been accepting bribes from the operators.
In fact, he said, yesterday’s raid was done in coordination with the barangay.
Rupinta also said they have been regularly monitoring their area of responsibility for any form of illegal gambling.
Much as he wants to conduct surveillance on the homes of suspected video carrera operators, Rupinta said they have difficulty doing so because they need a search warrant.
“All we can do is monitor those thatoperate in plain view,” he added.
During the operation, 14 video carrera machines and 20 mole-mole machines and coins amounting to P480 were confiscated. Caught betting the gambling machines were identified as Cresencio Catalan, Luisito Lucido, Ronald de Egurrola, Renante Alegar-bes, Rolando Dy, and Sulpicio Unabia.
The three minors, aged 15 and 16, who were also caught playing the machines, were turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development yesterday afternoon.
In Sitio Ermita Beach, drug suspect Romeo Mansueto was arrested after the operatives found three assorted packs of shabu in his house.
Romeo’s brother Rubin allegedly eluded arrest.
The raid was made by virtue of a search warrant for drug issued by Judge Geraldine Faith Econg of the Regional Trial Court Branch 9.
Jerry Rosal, alias Kulot, was also arrested after the operatives found a homemade .38 caliber revolver with three bullets in his house.
Labra told reporters yesterday that the raid on Rosal was made following “persistent” reports that a robbery group from Ozamiz City has arrived in Cebu and took shelter in his house in Ermita.
Although the operatives did not find the robbery group in Rosal’s house, Labra said they will continue to verify the report.
Labra said Rosal has been identified as the local contact of a Mindanao-based robbery group.
Labra said that apart from the action plan of the police against all forms of illegal activities in the city that included Ermita, Rupinta also requested them to help the barangay in their campaign against illegal gambling in the area.
