CEBU CITY POLICE OFFICE (CCPO) Director Royina Garma urged village officials to come up with an ordinance to regulate the leasings of apartments, dormitories and boarding houses.
She said on Monday morning, Nov. 19, that owners should check the background of potential tenants.
The ordinance, she said, should require a person to submit documents, including identification cards, while suspicious-looking persons should be reported to authorities.
Garma has the support of Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, deputy mayor for police matters.
Cooperation
“We will try to endorse that. We also urge house owners and owners of hotels to strengthen their security procedures, which is the complete gathering of information,” he said.
Tumulak urged landlords and landladies to cooperate with authorities and to report immediately any suspicious activities or renters.
Garma’s advice came after the arrest of suspected high-value target Jeffrey Jade Cabaron on Sunday dawn, Nov. 18. He yielded 3.3 kilos of “shabu” worth P39 million.
Cabaron rented a room in an apartment in Sitio Caimito, Barangay Tisa for P10,000 a month.
The operation against Cabaron that was initiated by the Pardo Police Station was the biggest haul in a single drug bust this year.
Garma said the shabu seized from Cabaron was of low-grade quality as the color of the substance was “yellowish brown.”
They are also investigating to determine the suspect’s bosses.
Drugs from the capital
“He is not a pusher in the streets,” Garma said, adding that Cabaron was a bodegero, who stored illegal drugs and distributed these to low-level pushers.
Cabaron hails from Barangay Suba, Cebu City.
Garma said the suspect may have transferred his operations to Tisa as CCPO personnel have been conducting patrols in Barangays Suba, Ermita and Pasil in the past 30 days.
“He may have escaped (from) the barangay because he was afraid to be identified,” she said.
She also suspected that the drugs proliferating in the National Capital Region have arrived in Cebu because these look similar to the shabu seized from Cabaron.
Her suspicion was bolstered when the vehicle confiscated from the suspect was registered in Quezon City.
“Medyo similar sa profiling sa most of the drugs na nahuli sa Luzon; most likely nakaabot dito yung supply sa Luzon,” Garma said.
3-month surveillance
The amount of shabu in his possession led them to believe Cabaron is a big-time drug player.
Pardo police, who had placed Cabaron under surveillance for three months, said the suspect sold drugs in bulk.
Chief Insp. Regino Maramag, chief of the Pardo Police Station, said they’d been looking for Cabaron for a long time.
“‘Yan yong consolidated na dakop namo sa Pardo. Sa tactical interrogation migawas iyang name (His name would always crop up when we interrogated pushers that we arrested). Amo lang gi-develop ni (We just followed up on it),” he said.
It turned out that Cabaron not only supplied drugs in Ermita, but he also supplied drugs in neighboring barangays, including Tisa where he had been living for a month.
Asked by reporters when he got involved in the illegal drug trade, Cabaron said he would answer the allegations against him in court. (KAL, AYB of SuperBalita Cebu with a report from RTF)