Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency agents search the house of a suspected shabu distributor at Barangay Balulang, Cagayan de Oro Cit on Wednesday, Sept. 4. (Photo by Menzie Montes)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A beneficiary of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a cash subsidy for the poorest of the poor, was arrested along with another female suspect for allegedly selling shabu, or crystal meth, in the city.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional office has confirmed that a certain Jalilah Macapanton, 35, is among the recipients of the conditional cash aid.
She was arrested during a raid on her house at Barangay Balulang by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The PDEA agents said Macapanton uses the aliases Jalilah Tangco and Pidao Itomama.
On her Bureau of Internal Revenue-issued taxpayer’s identification card, the suspect used the surname Tangco; and Macapanton on her 4Ps card.
In the search warrant, she was identified as Itomama.
The other woman arrested in a separate raid also in the same village is Divina Sumagayan, alias Diding, 53.
Macapanton was said to be a businesswoman, and Sumagayan engaged in lending, although it was not immediately known how they became 4Ps beneficiaries despite their income.
According to PDEA regional director Wilkins Villanueva, operatives were able to confiscate from Macapanton close to 25 grams of alleged shabu, placed inside 17 plastic sachets, with an estimated street value of P170,000.
Recovered from Sumagayan were eight plastic sachets of suspected shabu, estimated to be worth P30,000.
Villanueva said both suspects don’t maintain drugs dens, but were involved only in distribution, with customers coming to them to buy illegal drugs.
He added that the suspects secure their supply of illegal drugs from Marawi City and its nearby towns.
The DSWD said Macapanton’s cash grant will be transferred to her eldest child as she can no longer avail herself of the program due to her alleged involvement in crimes./TSB