A handcuffed drug suspect, Gregor Tagarda, gestures as he tries to hide his face following his arrest in Barangay Carmen yesterday morning. The suspect is a son of Misamis Oriental provincial jail warden Dominador Tagarda. (photo by Nitz Arancon)
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By NITZ ARANCON with JOEY NACALABAN
Correspondents .

THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested two sons of Misamis Oriental provincial jail warden Dominador Tagarda during a raid in their house on Gumamela Street in Barangay Carmen at around 5:30 am yesterday.

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Wilkins Villanueva, PDEA director for northern Mindanao, said Tagarda’s sons Gregor and Bon Clinton  have long been in the watch list because of their alleged links to the local illegal drug trade. He said the Tagarda siblings were “high-value targets” of the PDEA in Carmen, the city’s most populous barangay.

The suspects’ father Dominador said the siblings used to be “job order” workers at the capitol. City hall spokesperson Maricel Rivera also confirmed that one of the suspects, Bon Clinton, worked in city hall in 2016.

PDEA agents found and confiscated about 16 sachets of suspected shabu weighing some 25 grams and valued  at P171 thousand during the raid carried out based on a search warrant ossued by a court, Villanueva said.

Villanueva said Gregor, 35, was caught with 11 sachets of suspected shabu weighing five grams and with an estimated value of P102 thousand while Bon Clinton, 27, had 10 grams of the suspected shabu worth some P69 thousand.

He said narcotics agents also seized various drug paraphernalia from the suspects.

The Tagarda siblings were brought to the PDEA regional headquarters for detention as authorities prepare to press charges against them.

Both siblings denied that the sachets of suspected shabu confiscated during the raid were theirs.

Bon Clinton claimed to be a reformed drug user; he said he stopped doing drug in December 2018.

He pointed to his elder brother Gregor, saying he was the one who was involved in the drug trade.

Villanueva, for his part, said the denial did not come as a surprise to him, saying the PDEA was already used to that kind of response of drug suspects.

Villanueva said PDEA agents have subjected the Tagarda siblings to surveillance for months.

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