PDEA operatives go through narrow alleyways.
ANGELES CITY – A lightning raid by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the police in a slum area in Barangay Balibago here Friday netted at least 35 druggies.
Two of the principal targets of the operations however eluded arrest as the anti-narcotics agent swooped down on Hadrian Extension.
PDEA Region 3 director Christian Frivaldo said 16 of those arrested were caught in the act of sniffing shabu, while 19 others were taken to PDEA headquarters for further investigation and drug testing.
Frivaldo identified those who eluded the lawmen as brothers Santhy Cline De Veyra and Daniel Journales. Not as fast to get away was Louie De Veyra Journales who was arrested in his residence.
“The Journales brothers are included in the list of illegal drugs top personalities for maintaining drug dens in Angeles City,” said Frivaldo. He said a manhunt has been launched to arrest those who escaped.
The operatives seized “quantitative amount” of shabu and illegal drug paraphernalia during the search witnessed by barangay officials and representative from the media and the Department of Justice.
PDEA director general Wilkins Villanueva said the raid was part of the barangay drug clearing strategy of the agency to “flush out drug addicts and dismantle drug dens.”
The raiding team led by PDEA operatives and local police from the Special Concern Unit and Regional Drug Enforcement Group was armed with search warrant issued by an Angeles City court on three suspected drug dens being maintained by the “Journales Drug Group.”
According to Villanueva, the said group is composed of “bigtime personalities” engaged in the distribution and sale of shabu in Angeles CIty and nearby areas in Pampanga and Central Luzon.
“Seemingly no intervention had been made by barangay officials that the drug problem reached to this extent. The missing link here is the active participation of barangay anti-drug abuse council (BADAC),” Villanueva said in the aftermath of the raid.
“Apparently dito sa Barangay Balibago parang walang aksyon sa intervention program. Meaning no community-based rehabilitation program for drug addicts has been done,“ he lamented. “The absence of illegal drugs rehabilitation center in the area, forced us to conduct barangay clearing operations, not only here in Angeles City but also in other parts of the country. Tamaan na ang dapat tamaan.”
Villanueva warned that charges of dereliction will be levelled on barangay officials remiss in performing their responsibilities in the anti-drug campaign.
Mamac
Barangay Balibago chairman Rodelio “Tony” Mamac said his campaign against illegal drugs is “sustained even in this time of pandemic.”
Mamac said that several arrests of illegal drugs traffickers have been made and cases filed in court aside from the community-based rehabilitation program for first offenders and those facing minor violations on unlawful use of drugs.
Highlighting the current situation his barangay has to face, Mamac, a bemedaled retired police officer, said: “Tatlo na ang kalaban namin dito, una ang droga, pangalawa Covid, at ang dengue.“
This, even as he vowed to further intensify the barangay campaign against drugs especially given the easing of quarantine measures.
“Lumang stock ang ibinibenta ng mga pushers lalo na ngayon na medyo relax na ang quarantine measures sa coronavirus,” he said. —With PDEA report
