A MEMBER of the city’s Traffic Management and Transport Regulation Office (TMTRO) assigned at the Ungka Jaro terminal was nabbed by a team from the Oton police station in Barangay Trapiche, Oton last Tuesday.

Police identified the culprit as Benjamin Gequillana, 45 years old and a pioneering member of the TMTRO for 19 years. He was bagged after a long surveillance waiting for a buyer and found in his possession were two packets of sachet containing amphetamine hydrochloride and a drug paraphernalia.

MTRO officer in charge Donna Acap said the appointment of Gequillana as a job hire at the TMTRO is set to expire March 1 and he was immediately dropped from the renewal of appointment.

Acap said that traffic enforcers of the TMTRO are mandated to undergo drug testing every year. The arrested traffic enforcer was found drug negative in 2015 and his job hire status was confirmed.

But Gequillana was reported to be having serious family financial problems that may have pushed him to sell illegal drugs.

Drug pushing is non-bailable, and Gequillana is currently being incarcerated at the Oton police station.