By NICOLE MANAGBANAG
Correspondent
NORA SORIÑO
and SITA ASEQUIA
of GSD-Iligan Bureau
THE police in Iligan City and Misamis Occidental scored big with the arrest of a lawyer and two others, and the killing of the third person in the list of “high-value targets” in the province and another suspect in separate drug buy-and-bust operations this week.
Police identified the arrested suspects in Iligan as lawyer Hernan Tabalba, 47, Clifford Rico, 40, and Danilo Taotao, 50. All are Iligan residents.
In Baliangao, Misamis Occidental, police shot and killed on Thursday suspects Remy Gumapac Jr. and his driver identified only as “Arnel.”
Gumapac, who ranked third in the list of “high-value targets” of the provincial police, turned out to be a computer operator at the Ozamiz City Police Station.
Misamis Occidental police director Supt. Jeysen de Guzman said Gumapac a.k.a. Waway had links to an organized crime group in Ozamiz City known as the “Dragon Francisco group” that specializes on robbery, drug trafficking, extortion and assassinations.
In a report to Iligan police director Leony Roy Ga, Senior Insp. Felix Rabago Jr. said the City Anti-Illegal Task Force and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) caught Atty. Tabalba, Rico, and Taotao during an operation in Barangay San Miguel in Iligan on Tuesday night.
Rabago alleged that the lawyer was considered a “high-value target” by the Iligan police.
Police alleged that they seized from the suspects suspected shabu in three large plastic packs and over nine sachets of the suspected drugs in different sizes, foils, lighters, a weighing scale and drug paraphernalia, and a grenade.
Meanwhile, police director for northern Mindanao Chief Supt. Noel Constantino lauded the Misamis Occidental police for the operation that resulted in the killing of Gumapac and another suspect in Baliangao town on Thursday.
“This only shows that our campaign applies to all regardless of whether we are targeting other people or our own personnel. If they violate the law, they will have to answer for it,” said Constantino, noting that Gumapac worked at the Ozamiz police station. “There will be no let up in our intensified war against illegal drugs. There will be no sacred cows.”
Supt. de Guzman said Gumapac had been slapped with a search warrant by a court, and police failed to arrest him during an operation in Ozamiz City in Aug. 28 because the suspect was in Cebu at that time.
De Guzman said Gumapac was warned, and told to mend his ways earlier but he allegedly continued being involved in the local drug trade.
“We warned him but he did not heed our advise,” de Guzman said.
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