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[av_heading heading=’6 village chiefs under watch for ‘drug links’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Six village chiefs here — including Manuel Huelar Jr. of Barangay 35 — were allegedly linked to the illegal drug trade.
Their names have been submitted to the Department of the Interior and Local Government national office, Liga ng mga Barangay president Noli Villarosa disclosed.
The barangay captains and “several” kagawads were now subject for surveillance and evaluation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said Villarosa.
Huelar, a former player for Negros Slashers in the Metropolitan Basketball Association, was caught in a buy-bust operation the PDEA staged on Monday, Nov. 28 in an inn in Barangay Singcang.
Two scions of influential families in Negros Occidental — Joshua Roberto Ignacio-Arroyo and Christian Joseph Mijares — were arrested, too.
Villarosa, barangay captain of Tangub, said what happened to Huelar saddened him. He said the Barangay 35 captain ignored his advice.
According to Villarosa, he knew Huelar was in the authorities’ watch list of drug personalities and warned him about it in their “heart-to-heart” talk, but the latter did not mind and denied engaging in the illicit trade.
Huelar denied selling drugs but admitted that he used to be a user. He claimed that he was in the inn to pawn his firearm to his friends — Arroyo and Mijares — as he was headed to a derby in Tangub.
Villarosa called on his fellow barangay captains not to protect illegal drug activities in their turfs and urged those already engaged in such activities to stop.
He claimed that Director General Ronald dela Rosa, Philippine National Police chief, was sending “so many faces” to evaluate village chiefs in this city and other parts of Negros Island Region.
Villarosa said he also warned the other five barangay captains that the authorities were watching out for them./PN
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