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BY RANIE AZUE
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February 4, 2018
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CHR to verify Silay mayor’s statement
BACOLOD City – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Negros Occidental will verify Silay City mayor Mark Golez’s statement ordering the local police to arrest suspected drug lord Michael Divinagracia “dead or alive.”
CHR-Negros Occidental head Romeo Baldevarona said on Friday that they will issue a statement tomorrow.
Golez ordered Superintendent Noel Polines, director of the Silay City Police Office, to launch a manhunt against Divinagracia, who allegedly leads the notorious Divinagracia drug group in the province.
Police have drawn their attention to Divinagracia after suspected drug couriers Jose Alberto Pinaga, 32, and Maebelle Belmonte, 30, of Barangay Mambulac, Silay City had been caught on Jan. 28 at the seaport of Dumangas, Iloilo.
Recovered from Pinaga and Belmonte was a kilo of shabu worth P18 million – so far the biggest confiscation of shabu in a single antidrug operation in Western Visayas.
Polines earlier said the couple had been under their surveillance for some time prior to the arrest.
Citing intelligence reports, Polines said the couple works for the Divinagrcia drug group by transporting illegal drugs from Metro Manila to Negros Occidental via the Batangas-Caticlan-Iloilo route.
The drugs are then delivered to a certain “Neneng” in Bacolod City, Polines added.
Golez stressed that he does not want the police to only apprehend the drug groups “small runners.” Their arrest will not stop the proliferation of prohibited drugs in Silay, he added.
Golez also said Divinagracia had once turned himself in to the local authorities in the wake of the Philippine National Police’s “Oplan Tokhang” in 2016.
The mayor said he did not expect Divinagracia to backslide.
He added that even if police caught Pinaga – who is considered as the “right hand man” of the suspected drug group leader – Divinagracia will only find a replacement.
The police learned the couple’s shipment of shabu from a drug suspect caught in Barangay Palampas, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental on Jan. 23.
The 29-year-old Christian Unabia yielded shabu weighing 593.532 grams valued at around P6.825 million, police said.
Pinaga, Belmonte and Unabia were detained and facing charges for violation of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Durgs Act of 2002./PN
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