Man caught selling drugs outside Baclaran church

A 60-year-old suspect who sold drugs outside Baclaran Church in Parañaque City was arrested on Wednesday after his buyer turned out to be a member of the National Capital Region Police Office’s (NCRPO) drug enforcement unit.

Seized from Mohan Chandumal were 35 grams of “shabu” (crystal meth) worth P230,000.

According to Police Maj. Ferdinand Mendoza, the NCRPO’s drug enforcement unit chief, it was Chandumal himself who picked the place and time for the transaction.

Plenty of witnesses

“He wanted to do it there so that many people would be around and serve as witnesses should he be killed by [his group’s] rivals in the drug trade,” Mendoza said.

He added that Chandumal was on the Southern Police District’s drug watch list. Detained from 2016 to early this year for drug pushing, the suspect was acquitted by the court and resumed his drug transactions under the group of Michael Bagang, the operator of a drug ring in the cities of Pasay, Makati and Parañaque.

The Bagang group, however, has been at odds with a rival group. In 2015, Bagang and eight of his men were shot and wounded by still unidentified men. In May 2014, Michael’s brother, Mark Felizardo, was killed by armed men as he was refueling at a gas station.

Mendoza said that in both instances, a drug turf war was seen as the motive.

Although Chandumal’s life was spared, he faces the prospect of going back to jail. He is now detained at the NCRPO headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.