The series of shooting incidents in recent months in Dumaguete and other parts of Negros Oriental are attributed to the rise in the illegal drugs trade.
This was the assessment of Supt. Alet Virtucio, OIC provincial police director on Wednesday, who described the proliferation of illegal drugs in the province as already “alarming”.
According to Supt. Virtucio, many of the latest shooting incidents involved the killings of suspected drug pushers who fail to remit collections or pay for the delivery or shipment of illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamine hydrochloride or commonly known by its street name, shabu.
He admitted that law enforcers have difficulty in slowing down the entry of large quantities of shabu to Dumaguete and other parts of the Province especially with the advent of the nautical roll-on, roll-off (RO-RO) highway where little security check is carried out.
Shabu supply is coming from Manila and is delivered via RO-RO vessels to Batangas to Caticlan in Aklan, to Iloilo, and then to Dumaguete, he disclosed.
The problem is that despite intelligence activity, there is no security checks at the RO-RO vessels and their ports of entry, he added.
Supt. Virtucio also allayed public perception that the police have failed to address or curb the rising illegal drugs problem in the Province, saying that some personalities have actually been arrested and cases filed in court.
The OIC Provincial Police Director further assured that the police are doing their best to address the problem by coming up with an operational mapping, identifying areas where these shooting incidents take place so that police personnel can be deployed to prevent future killings.
“We are identifying big time pushers, and the police will run after them. Then the killings will stop,” Virtucio said.
In fact, the police have since neutralized big-time suspected drug dealers, including one at which some P1-million of suspected shabu was confiscated, as well as other drug personalities also arrested in Bacong, Tanjay and Canlaon City.
The assurance of the Provincial Director comes as public outcry is on the rise with people fearing more collateral damage as drug personalities are out to liquidate each other for a deal gone bad.
Virtucio admitted the grenade lobbing at a housing site in Candauay where a widow was seriously injured was related to the illegal drugs trade.
He said police investigation showed the actual target in that incident was a suspected drug pusher/triggerman who lived next door in a duplex structure shared by the widow.
The grenade-lobbing incident last Friday involved the delivery of five kilos of shabu, a KG-9 semi-automatic pistol and a grenade, with the target allegedly failing to remit to the drug dealer, said Virtucio.
The illegal drugs trade is no longer a criminal activity but a business that incurs losses which push the drug dealers to recover their finances, according to the police director.
He appealed to the community to help law enforcers in curbing the illegal drug trade by providing information that would lead to the suspected drug personalities. (PNA)
