DEATH penalty for drug traffickers?
If former Philippine National Police director Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is elected senator, that’s exactly what he will propose--to reinstate the death penalty, especially for convicted drug traffickers.
He admitted that the illegal drug problem in Cebu City seems to be never-ending, but he thinks that there has been a major improvement.
The former police chief, who was in Cebu on Saturday, Dec. 1, for the Anti-Drug and Peace and Order Summit 2018 in Tuburan, said that many policemen and narcopoliticians turned over a new leaf because they didn’t want to be killed.
Over the past months, especially in Cebu, suspected drug personalities were killed by unidentified men even though not a single case was filed against many of them.
Dela Rosa, though, believes that summary execution is illegal and the people behind it should be punished. The only legal way to kill criminals is to reinstate the death penalty, he said.
He said this is an appropriate punishment for drug lords who allow the entry of illegal drugs in the country and who distribute shabu in the communities.
The senatorial candidate told reporters that when he was the director general of the Bureau of Corrections, he talked to several Chinese drug traffickers. That was when he realized how weak the country’s laws on drugs are.
He said that drug lords from Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China said it’s easy to flood the Philippine market with illegal drugs because of the country’s weak laws and the absence of the death penalty.
That might also explain why, in Cebu City alone, millions worth of drugs were seized last month.
“So in less than a month it’s almost P90 million siguro,” said Senior Supt. Royina Garma, the director of the Cebu City Police Office, referring to the illegal drugs seized by city operatives recently. “So ibig sabihin, maraming gumagamit dito. ‘Yan ‘yong sinasabi ko na may market. So dapat gawan din natin ng paraan paano ma-eliminate ang market (So that means many are still using. That’s what I meant when I said there is a market. So we should do something to eliminate the market).”
Based on the data collated by Superbalita Cebu, Cebu City operatives seized around P95 million worth of shabu in November.
The latest was the P36.3 million worth of illegal drugs seized during a drug bust in Barangay Sambag 2 last Friday night, Nov. 30.
Four people were arrested in the operation by the Drug Enforcement Unit of the Guadalupe Police Station in Sitio Tambis on Urgello Road past 9:30 p.m.
The operation was the result of a three-month surveillance. The suspects were arrested in the middle of repacking illegal drugs.
One of those arrested was Michael Pacilan Carabaña alias Mike, 28, of Barangay Pardo. He was a surrenderer of Barangay Pardo’s Oplan Tokhang (approach and talk).
Another suspect, 24-year-old Jemuel Enrile of Barangay Cansojong, Talisay City, is in Talisay’s drug watchist.
Also arrested were Arnold Pacong Arquiza, 37, and Agustin Regis Quijano, 34, both of Barangay Quiot, Cebu City.
Guadalupe Police Station Chief Dexter Basirgo said that Carabaña had only been renting in Sitio Tambis for three weeks. He reportedly transferred after his name came up in Pardo as among those involved in the sale of illegal drugs.
An informant reported to the Guadalupe Police Station that illegal drugs were sold in bulk in Sambag 2.
A poseur-buyer transacted P12,000 worth of illegal drugs with Carabaña. When the sale was consummated, Carabaña was immediately arrested. When police entered Carabaña’s house, they found three other men repacking what looked like shabu.
Police confiscated over three kilos of shabu with an estimated worth of P36,344,000. They also recovered P105,000 in cash, an expensive cellphone, three motorcycles, a Toyota Avanza and a weighing scale.
According to their investigation, the supply of shabu came from Luzon. Carabaña directly receives the supply and then distribute it to street pushers. Carabaña reportedly supplies drugs in Sambag 2 and Pardo in Cebu City as well as the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue.
“Based on their narration, the drugs came from Manila. They have been in the illegal drug trade for some time and their transactions are already in bulk,” said Basirgo in Cebuano.
Police also recovered notebooks, which contained names that police believed to be Carabaña’s colleagues in the illegal drug trade. The names are now under background investigation.
Garma urged boarding house owners to get to know their boarders so they wouldn’t meet any problems in the future.
Garma was disappointed by the large haul despite their continued drug operations. From AYB, HBL of Superbalita Cebu/JGA