Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jul 2003 Source: Sun.Star Cebu (Philippines) Copyright: 2003 Sun.Star Contact: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1690 Author: Mia E. Abellana and Oscar C. Pineda COP ACCUSED OF TRYING TO STOP DRUG BUY-BUST A POLICEMAN allegedly tried to stop operatives of the Maritime police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) when they conducted a buy-bust operation in Parker Beach, Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City Thursday night. According to Senior Insp. Ranulfo Sebusa, a certain PO3 Leodegario Ibano--initially identified by the Maritime police as Gario Dano--pointed his firearm at them when they tried to arrest Onelito Jumao-as. Jumao-as allegedly sold two decks of suspected shabu worth P200 to a poseur-buyer. But PO3 Ibano told Sun.Star in a telephone interview yesterday that he merely wanted to check out what the commotion was all about, and left after seeing that it was a legitimate buy-bust. Ibano lives in the area. It turned out that the Maritime police, which has a detachment in Barangay Marigondon, failed to coordinate with the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station about the operation. Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Paquito Belandres will investigate once he receives a formal complaint. Ranulfo Sebusa of the Maritime police visited Belandres yesterday to inform him about the incident. He said it was the PDEA operatives who called the shots in that operation, that's why there was no coordination between the Maritime Group and the Lapu-Lapu police. The Maritime Group is a PNP national support unit that is under the Police Regional Office 7. During the buy-bust, Jumao-as also allegedly yielded 95 decks of suspected shabu, two packs of suspected shabu, drug paraphernalia, P1,230 and five .38 bullets. Sebusa believes Ibano was protecting Jumao-as because he refused to let the Maritime operatives arrest the suspect despite identifying themselves as policemen three times. Belandres said they have no policeman named Gario Dano, but they have two officers with the same surname. He said he knows SPO2 Jose Dano and PO2 Aldin Dano are both family men and are not the type to resort to illegal transactions. According to Sebusa, Jumao-as sells the shabu not far from their Marigondon detachment. After the Maritime police received information about his trade, they put Jumao-as under surveillance for one week. Four operatives, including a poseur-buyer, approached Jumao-as to buy two decks of shabu at 10:30 p.m. last Thursday. After the transaction was completed, they immediately arrested Jumao-as, who allegedly struggled to get free. PO1 Napoleon Taneo told reporters that as Jumao-as was struggling, about 50 of Jumao-as' friends and relatives approached and tried to stop them from arresting him. He said Ibano was drinking at a store nearby and when he noticed the commotion, he stood up and approached them as well. "He was carrying his .45 pistol, so we immediately identified ourselves as policemen from Maritime," Taneo said. Ibano's companion, Taneo said, even tried to lower the policeman's firearm, but Ibano pointed it at them, forcing the rest of the operatives to aim their firearms at Ibano. Seeing that there were four operatives, the policeman reportedly backed out and left. Taneo said they wanted to confront Ibano for trying to stop them from arresting Jumao-as but he disappeared. Sebusa said they will leave it to the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 to decide what to do with Ibano. They will furnish PRO 7 Director Robert Delfin a copy of the spot report of the operation. Jumao-as said he did not know the policeman and he was not enjoying anyone's protection. He initially denied owning the drugs, but later admitted he has been selling shabu for about two months. He said someone just delivers the drugs to his house, and sells these in Parker Beach every night. He earned P20 for every P100 worth of shabu sold. - --- MAP posted-by: Tom