A Level 2 drug personality in Dumaguete was arrested Friday in his rented house in Banilad, Bacong.
Provincial Intelligence Branch-Special Operations Group team leader SPO4 Momoy Germudo identified the suspect as Howard Estoconing Cabano, 52 years old, married, considered as a high value target along with his brother Roswell.
Recovered during the search were three big bulto (volume) of suspected shabu weighing more or less 15 grams, five smaller bulto and 21 small sachets also containing suspected shabu, disposal lighters, one digital weighing scale, one improvised burner, improvised tooter, and one rolled tinfoil, among others.
The suspected shabu was pegged at P300,000 based on the Dangerous Drugs Board value.
Cabano was the second drug personality arrested by PIB-SOG following the resumption of the anti-drug operation.
Meanwhile, a former Philippine National Police non-commissioned officer was killed Tuesday night during an anti-illegal drugs operation by local police and operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Dumaguete City, the provincial capital of Negros Oriental.
An initial report said that around 9:50 p.m. on Tuesday, the dismissed former policeman, identified as Roderick Maquinta, allegedly sold suspected shabu to an undercover operative along Bishop E.P. Surban Street in this capital.
Maquinta, a former police intelligence operative, ran after sensing that it was a buy-bust operation.
He was shot by pursuing policemen after he allegedly drew his firearm, a caliber .45 handgun.
Maquinta was immediately brought to the Holy Child Hospital, where he succumbed afterwards to three gunshot wounds to his chest.
The Dumaguete police chief, Supt. Jonathan Pineda, on Wednesday confirmed that Maquinta was a former PNP member who was dismissed from the service sometime in 2013.
He was declared AWOL (absent without official leave) after he tested positive for illegal drugs, until his dismissal, said Pineda.
The handgun recovered from Maquinta was forwarded to the PNP Crime Laboratory for ballistics examination to determine a possible connection with previous crimes, particularly shooting incidents involving suspected drug personalities, the police chief said. (With reports from Juancho Gallarde and Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
