Neighbors fed up with noisy addicts aid cop in drug war

Neighbors who finally had enough of the noisy, foul-mouthed drug users on their street were just some of the crucial allies who helped Senior Insp. Eduardo Juayno Gillera wage the war on narcotics in Marikina City.

Gillera pointed this out to thank those who had enabled him to arrest some 50 drug suspects in the city within a year, a feat that recently earned him recognition from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

The chief of the city’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group was named one of Metro Manila’s Honorable and Outstanding Police Officers for 2011, in ceremonies held at Camp Bagong Diwa on Feb. 6.

He considered his biggest catch to be Nomer Magnayon, an alleged big-time pusher who had been in and out of jail before a buy-bust operation organized by Gillera in November last year sent him back to the can.

The trap for Magnayon took two months to set, the officer told the Inquirer after receiving the award.

“Magnayon has been pushing shabu [methampetamine hydrochloride] for many years in Marikina. Records showed that, after being in and out of jail, he has been very careful in his dealings,” Gillera said.

But things changed to the lawmen’s favor last year when residents on Luna Street in Barangay Sto. Niño began complaining about Magnayon’s house, where strangers came and went “24 hours a day,” he said.

“The people conducting business there could get noisy at times,” he said. “Other neighbors also complained that some residents became addicted to shabu because of him.”

And so two months before the buy-bust, he said, “we started surveillance operations in the area. We had assets who conducted test buys and others who gathered more information about the way he carried out his activities.”

The maze-like layout of the houses also posed a challenge. Gillera said his six-man team had to map out all the possible escape routes that the suspect might take.

But a bigger problem was finding a poseur buyer that Magnayon trusted. “Fortunately, we found an asset who personally knew the suspect. On Nov. 2, we had it all arranged,” he said.

The transaction was tense, but everything went according to plan. “When we paid him the marked money and he gave us the drug, the team moved in and quickly grabbed him,” Gillera said.

“This was a really good accomplishment on our part because Magnayon has been very elusive for the longest time,” Gillera said.

Though quick to point out that Marikina was neither a hotbed for shabu production nor a major drug market, Gillera conceded that drug pushing activities had become rampant especially in Tumana and Malanday.

These areas thus became his men’s focus when they sought the cooperation of community leaders through dialogues and seminars on the dangers of drug abuse.

“Last year, we asked the local officials to bring together all suspected drug users and pushers in the area. We talked to them and gave them stern warnings to quit drugs or else we will pursue them,” he said.

The simple, verbal approach apparently proved effective, Gillera said, noting that they had since received fewer complaints about the drug trade in these two areas.

The task force still has more than a dozen suspects on its list of targets, now also under surveillance, the award-winning officer said.