ILOILO City – The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO) seized a combined P59 million worth of shabu in six months (July to December 2019) of antidrug operation.
“Impressive” was how the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) described the accomplishment.
BCPO was able to confiscate P34 million worth of shabu while the NOPPO, P25 million, PRO-6 data showed.
But while the confiscation was impressive, it also affirmed that shabu remained prevalent in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, PRO-6 spokesperson.
She described the city and province as “areas of concern” in the PRO-6’s campaign against illegal drugs.
The other day, BCPO deputy director for operations Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido branded Bacolod City “shabulized” due to the pervasiveness of shabu there.
“Iya lang ina personal opinion or term kay wala sang parameters ang word nga ‘shabulized’. The correct term is ‘area of concern’,” said Malong.
A locale is classified an “area of concern” if there are drugs groups, drug trading and drugs users in it, explained Malong.
Espenido was assigned to the BCPO in October last year by President Rodrigo Duterte to cleanse Bacolod City of illegal drugs.
“Panay ang huli ng pulis…Marami pa ring drugs,” said Espenido.
But he expressed confidence that “everything has an end.”
“Mabenta daw dito…very easy magbili ng drugs. Tingnan natin kung hanggang kailan,” said Espenido.
He urged leaders and members of various drug groups to stop their illegal activities, present themselves at the BCPO and help the city police make Bacolod drug-free.
He mentioned the Tolentino, Ramos, Cuadra, and Camaria groups but these mostly operate in Negros Occidental.
Espenido gave them until the end of this month.
Beginning February, Espenido said, his unit would be working aggressively to cleanse Bacolod City of illegal drugs.
He did not discount the possibility that it would be bloody but assured the people of Bacolod that policemen would be upholding the rule of law.
Espenido was the police chief of Ozamiz City prior to his Bacolod reassignment.
On July 30, 2017 Ozamiz City’s Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 14 others were killed in a shootout led by Espenido who was serving search warrants at Parojinog’s properties in barangays Baybay San Roque and Baybay Santa Cruz.
In November 2016, Espenido was also the police chief of Albuera, Leyte when its mayor, Rolando Espinosa Sr., was killed in a shootout as police were attempting to serve a search warrant.
Both Parojinog and Espinosa were linked by President Duterte to illegal drugs./PN
