ILOILO City – The Prevendido drug trafficking group remains operational, according to the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
Relatives of the slain drug lord Richard “Buang” Prevendido are keeping their business alive, IPPO director Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba said.
“They operate in the 5th District (of Iloilo province) and Iloilo City,” said Tayaba.
The drug group was expected to disintegrate after police shot and killed Prevendido when he resisted arrest on Sept. 1 last year in Barangay Balabago, Jaro district.
But latest intelligence information indicates otherwise, the IPPO said.
“Consistent” reports reaching the provincial police show that the Prevendido drug group is “now being manned by relatives of Richard” – specifically a nephew and a niece – said Tayaba.
They get their drug supply from Manila and Mindanao and send them to Iloilo via ships or roll-on, roll-off transport, he said.
“Marami silang kamag-anak na nagtutulak ng droga (They have a lot of relatives trafficking illegal drugs),” said Tayaba.
Chiefs of police in the 5th District (northern Iloilo) were ordered to step up their monitoring of drug suspects.
Prevendido and son Jason were shot and killed when they tried to fight operatives of the IPPO, the Iloilo City Police Office and the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Intelligence Division out to serve them a warrant of arrest.
Prevendido has one family member consistently tagged to the illegal drug trade – his sister Remia Prevendido Gregori, barangay captain of Bakhaw, Mandurriao district.
The Mandurriao police classified Gregori as a high-value target in their antidrug campaign, while the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said they will keep monitoring the activities of the recently re-elected village chief.
But authorities appear to be struggling to find solid evidence to pin her down.
In September last year Gregori went to the Mandurriao police station for police profiling even though she insisted that she is not involved in the drug trade.
Moreover, she was not included in the drug list that PDEA’s central office made public two weeks before the May 14 barangay election.
“Nasa proseso pa rin tayo ng pagkalap ng ebidensya (We’re still in the process of gathering evidence)” against Gregori, PDEA regional director Wardley Getalla had admitted.
Meanwhile Tayaba said they continue to monitor northern Iloilo for other drug syndicates. “In due time, kukunin natin sila.”
Aside from Prevendido, another drug lord – Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr., also known as “Dragon” – had also been killed.
Odicta and wife Meriam were shot to death at the Caticlan Jetty Port in Malay, Aklan on Aug. 29, 2016. Their killers remain unidentified.
Arturo “Master Pedik” Balume Sr. of the Balume group, believed to be a subgroup of the Odicta group, was arrested on Oct. 12 last year in Negros Occidental.
Ernesto Bolivar of the Bolivar group – which the IPPO said operates in the 3rd District of Iloilo – remains at large. He has a P200,000 bounty.
Latest intelligence information reaching the police said Bolivar is hiding either in Manila or Bohol.
Getalla said the PDEA Region 6 continues to watch out for the “down lines” of these drug groups./PN
