Trike driver tagged as drug dealer nabbed in Cubao school area

MANILA A community where several schools are located lost a headache on Monday, when
the Quezon City police arrested a tricycle driver suspected of being a drugs supplier in the area,
and four other people during an apparent pot session in his house.
The Quezon City Police Districts Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group
(AIDSOTG) arrested tricycle driver Manuel Morillo alias Ogie, 33, in a buy-bust operation at
his house along 18th Avenue, Barangay San Roque in Cubao.

Morillo was nabbed at 10:30 a.m. in front of house No. 36, 18th Avenue, right across two
adjacent elementary schools. Morillo had sold a sachet of shabu (methamphetamine
hydrochloride) to a police asset for P5,000.
Four other peopleidentified as Richard Basco, 37; Anacleto Medrano, 24; Mohammad Daud,
26; and Ana Cristina Calixto, 24 all residents of Quezon City, were also caught inside the
house in the act of inhaling suspected shabu, said Chief Insp. Enrico Figueroa, head of the
QCPD AIDSOTG, in a report.
Recovered from the operation was one big sachet of suspected shabu, which was the subject of
the buy-bust along with the marked boodle money; 17 other small sachets of suspected shabu,
one of which was already opened; three strips of foil with traces of suspected shabu; two lighters,
and an improvised glass tooter.
The case investigator, SPO3 Gerardo Quimson Jr., said the operation was launched after
residents in the area had complained about Morillo being the supplier of drugs in the area.
Quimson, however, said there was no reason to believe Morillo had been selling to the nearby
school communities.
The arrested suspects will be facing complaints of selling and possession of illegal drugs and
paraphernalia.

Boosted by Duterte, Caloocan mayor declares own war vs drugs

Police chief says they will start with street-level illegal drug pushing

MANILA Following the vision of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte towards a society free of
illegal drugs and crime, Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan has ordered the city police to go
all-out against illegal drugs and work for the apprehension of big-time drug lords based in the
city.
Dutertes pronouncement against illegal drugs is like a turbo booster for us mayors to push
harder our efforts to jail members of all drug syndicates, Malapitan said in a statement.
We will hunt and crack down on everyone who is associated with drugs. We will not stop until
we completely diminish drugs in Caloocan, he added.
Senior Superintendent Bartolome Bustamante, Caloocan City police chief, said his men got the
courage to go after pushers, users and manufacturers of illegal drugs from the mayor and Duterte
who has prioritized the elimination of drug syndicates in the country.
If the head will speak, others will follow. Before, policemen are apprehensive to go after bigtime anti-drug law violators; now we know we have a backup, Bustamante said.
As of the May 2014 data of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, all barangays (villages) in
Caloocan City, have been infiltrated by the illegal drug trade to varying degrees. Twelve of the
188 barangays in the city, are seriously affected, meaning there is at least one suspected drug
laboratory or warehouse in the barangay.
Meanwhile, 48 barangays are moderately affectedmeaning there is at least one pusher in the
barangay while 128 are slightly affected or there is at least one identified drug user in the
area.
Like Caloocan City, all barangays in Navotas have also been affected by illegal drugs to varying
degrees. Eighty five percent of the barangays of Malabon City have been infiltrated by the drug
trade, while 51.52 percent of Valenzuela Citys villages have drug pushing problems.
To implement the all-out war, Bustamante said he would implement the Caloocan Citys antidrug plan, including drug supply and demand reduction, civic awareness and response, and
interagency cooperation.

The first step is Oplan Katok, patterned after Davao Citys own operations vs illegal drugs.
Under Oplan Katok, Caloocan police operatives will literally knock on the doors of suspected
drug dealers to tell them to stop their illicit trade. The second step will be surveillance. Drug
trade suspects who would not stop even after the warnings would be arrested, said Bustamante.
The Caloocan City police chief, however, stressed they would not resort to vigilante-style
killings or summary executions of crime suspects. (But) We are not the type who will kill
unjustly. The all-out war will be based on the law. We will only shoot suspects who refuse to
surrender, and fight back, Bustamante said.
Bustamante said they would focus on the 12 barangays without Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse
Councils (BADAC).
While Malapitan has targeted big-time drug pushers and drug lords, Bustamante admitted they
would start with street-level pushing.
An anti-narcotics operative for 10 years, however, expressed pessimism about the operation:
This is a good move. But why only now?