BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO and IAN PAUL CORDERO
ILOILO City – The former barangay captain of Kasing-kasing, Molo district has been arrested in a buy-bust operation yesterday.
Gemma Calzado, elected barangay councilwoman in May after completing three consecutive terms as village chief, yielded nine plastic sachets of shabu around 9 a.m. at her house.
According to the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), Calzado, 53, sold a sachet of shabu to a police asset for P1,200.
Eight more sachets were seized from her, said RDEU chief, Senior Inspector Kennith Bermejo.
He described Calzado as a high-value target, level 2 and under the group of slain drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr.
Calzado was placed under surveillance for two months prior to the buy-bust.
“Her operation was on and off. But lately we monitored she possessed a huge volume of shabu from her supplier in Bacolod City,” said Bermejo.
After her arrest, Calzado was take to the Molo police station.
In May a few days before the barangay elections, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) national office made public its list of barangay captains and councilmen allegedly involved in illegal drugs. One of them was Calzado – the only barangay official from Western Visayas included in the list dominated by those from Region 5 or the Bicol Region, Cordillera Administrative Region and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Despite this negative publicity, Calzado was elected No. 1 village councilwoman. She denied peddling shabu.
“This is unfair. I have nothing to do with illegal drugs. I don’t use drugs. How were they able to implicate me? What’s their basis,” she asked.
Calzado believed political enemies made up stories against her.
“If I am engaged in illegal activities my constituents would surely not have trusted me and reelected me,” she said.
The former Molo police station commander, Chief Inspector Marlon Valencia, recalled that during the fiesta of Barangay Kasing-kasing a few years ago, the barangay council led by Calzado displayed a streamer welcoming Odicta and wife Merriam.
“I saw the welcome streamer. If you’re not associated with the Odictas, why would you welcome them? They were not city government officials,” said Valencia.
The Odicta husband and wife were shot to death on Aug. 29, 2016 by unidentified armed men at the jetty port in Caticlan, Malay, Aklan.
“Wala ko ‘ya kakita kag kabalo nga involved sila gali sa ilegal nga druga. Sa tuod lang gid, wala ko ‘ya kabalo nga drug lord ato gali si Odicta,” Calzado said at the Molo police station lockup cell.
Calzado appealed for compassion to President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Gusto ko palab-ot sa kay President Duterte, sin-o ang nanugid sang akon nga ngalan sa iya kag kun ano gid ang rason,” she said./PN
