Narcs arrest Surnor pol’s son linked to drug trade

By BEN SERRANO
and LITO RULONA

Correspondents

BUTUAN City–Authorities arrested another barangay chairman in Caraga in the ongoing anti-illegal drug campaign on Saturday.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency identified the suspect as Felixberto Dumadag III, barangay chairman of Barangay Poblacion in Tubod town in Surigao del Norte.

PDEA regional director Gilbert Buenafe said Dumadag is a son of Tubod’s former vice mayor Felixberto Sr.. The father is presently a town councilor.

Buenafe said the suspect yielded five grams of suspected shabu, ammunition for a caliber .38 revolver and a caliber .45 pistol and drug paraphernalia during his arrest in Tubod, Surigao del Norte.

Buenafe said Dumadag is a “high-value” suspect in the PDEA list.

There were allegations that authorities planted evidence against the suspect, an accusation the PDEA  strongly denied.

In Agusan del Sur, authorities shot and killed a drug suspect identified as  Armando Asis in Barangay Sta. Maria in the town of Trento, Agusan del Sur on Friday afternoon.

The Trento police alleged that Asis fought back while officers were serving a warrant for his arrest. Police said the suspect fired a caliber .45 pistol, prompting officers to shot back. The suspect was shot to the head.

Authorities claimed Asis had two sachets of suspected shabu, drug paraphernalia and some P6 thousand in cash with him.

Relatives of the suspects said the police planted two sachets of suspected shabu, and that the officers could not even show where Asis’s alleged gun was.

Meanwhile in Bukidnon, police arrested a suspected illegal drug peddler during a buy-and-bust operation at Field 34 along the boundaries of New Sandanan and Tangkulan in Manolo Fortich town on Friday.

Authorities identified the suspect as Archie Balendes a.k.a. Archid, 36, of Camp Philips, Agusan Canyon in Manolo Fortich town.

Senior Insp. Kenneth Pontillas, who led the operation, said Balendres yielded two sachets of suspected shabu, three caliber 9mm bullets, a cal. 45 bullet, P1 thousand in marked money, cellphones and paraphernalia.

Pontillas said authorities pounced on the suspect immediately after he handed a sachet of suspected shabu to a police agent who posed as a buyer.

At the same time, the officers from the Regional Public Safety Battalion and the Manolo Fortich police station also arrested Joon Tamula, 33, of Purok 1, Barangay Dicklum in Manolo Fortich, who was wanted for a frustrated murder case.