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BY STEPHEN LOUIE CHECA and RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Thursday, January 5, 2017
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SAN JOSE, Antique – Has the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) penetrated Antique? A 23-year-old suspected member of the Islamic separatist group in Mindanao died in an antidrug operation of the police in Barangay Funda-Dalipe here.
Joevanny Malutao Ballenas of Barangay Palma, Barbaza, Antique died of eight gunshot wounds, according to Superintendent Norby Escobar of the San Jose police station.
How the Antiqueño Ballenas became a member of the MNLF was unclear. According to Escobar, two of the identification cards they recovered from the suspect described him as a technical sergeant of the MNLF NUSO Command and member of a striking force.
“We have been targeting Ballenas for quite some time. We heard he was the shabu supplier in Barbaza,” said Escobar.
The identification cards bore the signatures of MNLF leader Nur Misuari as commander-in-chief of the Bangsamoro Armed Forces and a certain Lieutenant General Samir Edres Al Haj, chief NUSO Command. November last year, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Misuari accepted his invitation to join the peace talks.
A series of test buys were conducted since November last year to ascertain Ballenas’ involvement in illegal drugs, Escobar said.
On Tuesday around 4:15 p.m. an undercover police officer was able to buy a heat-sealed plastic sachet containing suspected shabu from Ballenas for P1,000.
But Ballenes realized he was being entrapped and immediately fired his gun though he missed the policeman, said Escobar.
The undercover policeman’s backup cops fired back at Ballenas.
Aside from shabu, also recovered from Ballenas were the marked money the police poseur buyer used, a .367 revolver with four live ammunitions, a cell phone, a motorcycle, a hand grenade, and an assortment of documents.
21ST DRUG WAR CASUALTY
Ballenas became the police’s 21st casualty in the war against illegal drugs in Western Visayas. A day before he was killed, 42-year-old Elphy Sagpao, also a drug suspect, was shot dead in Culasi, Antique.
Sagpao was the 20th drug war casualty in the region, not 17th, clarified Superintendent Gilbert Gorero, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6). Their list was not immediately updated, he explained the initial wrong body count.
According to Gorero, some of the drug suspects the police shot in antidrug operations died days or even weeks in hospitals after they were shot.
“Our listing was not updated immediately. But now, our record had a total of 21 casualties,” he clarified.
Gorero also said couple Melvin and Meriam were stricken off the list of the regional police’s drug war casualties “because they were killed not in police operation.”
The Odicta couple was gunned down on Aug. 29, 2016 by still unidentified assassins at the jetty port of Caticlan in Malay, Aklan.
The PRO-6 started its drug war July last year when the Philippine National Police launched its Oplan Double Barrel against drug trafficking.
Since then, the other drug suspects who died in police operations were the following:
* Romy Hisog
* Elpidio Geroy
* Welmer Gomez
* Marck Anthony Sorongon
* retired Senior Police Officer 1 Wilson De Leon
* Reynante Tanaleon
* Michael Huesca
* Paul Centeno
* Michael Angelo Abebinir
* Kenneth Sumudivilla
* Panfilo Artuz
* Freddie Sumbing
* Allan Rivero
* Rommy Espinosa
* Aslani Mapandi
* Arman Edem
* Roberto Supremo
* Enecito Esacaner, and
* Roberto Magbanua.
Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles, regional police director, said the police were not happy of the deaths but considered these as accomplishments in the campaign against drug trafficking.
The antidrug operations against Ballenas and Sagpao, he said, spoke well of the Antique police’s vigilance.
“I am optimistic that our campaign against illegal drugs will be sustained through 2017. I am thankful that none of our personnel got hurt, most especially by Ballenas who was an MNLF member,” said Gentiles said./PN
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