A FAMILIAR face surprised a team from the Cebu City Public Safety Company (CCPSC) that went to Barangay San Roque, Cebu City last Monday night.
The team that included SPO1 Jaime Misa had learned from a resident that several persons were playing illegal video games in an interior portion, so they raided the area. They caught three persons—two suspected junkies and a gambler—at 6 p.m.
But Misa was stunned when one of the suspects turned out to be PO2 Rolito Estrobo, who entered the police force in the same year he did.
“Ligdong man na pagkatawo. Karon nag-intel man (I knew him to be an honest man. Now he seems to be doing undercover intelligence work),” quipped Misa in a TV5 Cebu report.
Supt. Romeo Santander, City Intelligence Branch (CIB) chief, said he also knew Estrobo because he trained the latter with Misa in 2002 in the Regional Mobile Group, which is now the Regional Public Safety Batallion.
The police official said he played basketball with Estrobo then.
Supt. Melbert Esguerra, CCPSC chief, said that Estrobo and Shane Dumon, 18, were caught carrying devices for sniffing illegal drugs.
“They were about to prepare the drug paraphernalia,” he told reporters yesterday.
Three sachets of what appeared to be shabu were seized from the two. Carlo Campogan Magno, 20, was caught for playing video karera, a form of illegal gambling.
Estrobo was transferred to Siquijor Provincial Police Office (SPPO) after he allegedly got involved in illegal drugs while he was still assigned in Waterfront Police Station.
He reportedly went absent for several days without filing an official leave at SPPO.
Supt. Renato Dugan, chief of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7’s Public Information Office, said that Estrobo will face a separate investigation for his administrative liability.
Dismissal from service is the penalty for such a crime.
“Saddam”
At 9 p.m. that same day, a 24-year-old suspected drug pusher was caught in a buy-bust in Barangay Suba.
CIB operatives led by Santander took 118 small packs of suspected shabu from Junly “Saddam” Hones, 24.
The contraband is worth P35,000.
Hones had been placed under surveillance for three weeks, after a resident tipped off the police about the suspect’s activity.
In Barangay Basak Pardo, another buy-bust led to the arrest Joel Tuanzon and seizure of 11 sachets from him at 11:40 p.m.
A complaint for violating Republic Act 9165, or the 2002 Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, will be filed against Estrobo, Dumon, Hones, and Tuanzon before the Office of Cebu City Prosecutor.
Magno will be charged with illegal gambling, a violation under the Revised Penal Code.