POLICEMEN have difficulty in hunting down the top drug suspect of Bacolod City due to the alleged protection he gets from the community.
Inspector Adrian James Albaytar, assistant team leader of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU), said Sunday that 39-year old Ramy Poja has gained the protection of the community after he provided them with some help.
"It's a give and take kind of relationship," Albaytar added.
Albaytar said Poja sometimes give illegal drugs to a person for free.
He said police have a hard time arresting Poja because there is no one who can directly inform them about the suspect’s whereabouts.
"It is very glaring (that he gets help), even barangay officials do not help the authorities," he added.
Poja has been subjected to several police operations, but he managed to escape the authorities.
On February 25, agents of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Negros Occidental, along with operatives from CDEU, Regional Intelligence Unit, and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bacolod, swooped down Poja's house in Barangay Banago to serve him an arrest warrant, however, he was able to evade arrest by allegedly throwing two explosives at the authorities, though it did not explode.
Operatives confiscated four sachets of suspected “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), drug paraphernalia, firearms, ammunition, and explosives.
The police were also able to arrest two members of Poja's drug group – Roberto Rodriguez Jr., who poured gasoline on his body and torched himself, and Steve Libo-on.
Last week, Senior Superintendent Francisco Ebreo, officer-in-charge of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), said authorities in Western Visayas are intensifying their intelligence monitoring to determine Poja’s whereabouts, whom they claimed is going in and out of the province.