ILOILO City – Will the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), now under Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, finally succeed in arresting top drug suspect Ernesto Bolivar of Barangay Guinacas, Pototan, Iloilo?
Three PRO-6 directors before Pamuspusan tried but all failed to find Bolivar, 41, who became the region’s top drug target after the death in September 2017 of drug lord Richard Prevendido. They were Police Brigadier Generals Cesar Hawthorne Binag, Jose Gentiles and John Bulalacao.
Bolivar’s arrest and the campaign against illegal drugs remains a PRO-6 priority, according to Pamuspusan through the regional police office’s spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong.
Police units have been ordered to step up efforts to locate Bolivar in a recent command conference with Pamuspusan.
“The goal is to sustain the gains of the PRO-6 in the revitalized campaign against illegal drugs, targeting the remaining drug personalities and groups in Panay and Negros islands, and these include Bolivar,” said Malong.
Bolivar was believed to be a minion of Prevendido and stepped up drug trafficking activities after his boss died in a shootout with policemen on Sept. 1, 2017 in Barangay Balabago, Jaro district here.
To avoid detection, sources said, Bolivar has tapped the services of personalities whom the police are not familiar with.
Sources further told Panay News Bolivar has lots of money to buy protection from policemen and even businessmen.
Bolivar has a pending arrest warrant for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. He was charged although he managed to escape from policemen trying to entrap him in a buy-bust operation at his house in Barangay Guinacas, Pototan on Nov. 9, 2016.
Malong said they were verifying reports about the alleged protectors of Bolivar.
The Bolivar drug group operates mainly in central and northern Iloilo province and parts of nearby Capiz. It is also into robbery and gun-for-hire services, according to the PRO-6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit.
The provincial government of Iloilo is dangling a P500,000 monetary reward to whoever could give information leading to the arrest of Bolivar.
Pamuspusan officially started his PRO-6 directorship on June 28.
“I assure the men and women of PRO-6 that I will not demand from you those which I am not willing to do myself,” said Pamuspusan whose last assignment was as chief of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Headquarters Support Service in Camp Crame.
Pamuspusan, 54, is the 34th director of the PRO-6. He and his immediate predecessor, Bulalacao, 56, belonged to Philippine Military Academy’s Class “Maringal” 1988.
Bulalacao retired from the police service on June 27./PN
