ILOILO City – Police units across Western Visayas arrested 889 drug personalities these past five months.
The most number of arrests – 70 – was made between Feb. 12 to 18, according to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) spokesperson Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong.
The public should expect more arrests in the coming months. Some 1,700 drug personalities remain in the PRO-6 watch list, with 643 of them classified as high-value targets.
According to Malong, these high-value targets included barangay officials and members of the Philippine National Police.
“Our regional director (Police Brigadier General John Bulalacao) always reminds police chiefs to monitor all high-value targets in their respective areas and arrest them if they have evidence,” she said.
Early this month Bulalacao said the antidrug operations could be bloody if the targets fight back.
Thus the better option for these high-value targets is to surrender peacefully, he stressed.
He cited one case – the April 28 operation in Estrella Subdivision, Barangay 6, Victorias, City, Negros Occidental that led to the death of suspected drug lord Leoner Jalandoon.
The Jalandoon drug group covered Negros and Panay islands.
Jalandoon sold P27,000 worth of shabu to a police poseur-buyer and fought back when he was about to be arrested, according to Bulalacao.
The police afterwards recovered more shabu valued at P2.7 million.
“I’m warning drug personalities. You will suffer the same fate as Jalandoon’s should you fight back,” said Bulalacao./PN
