Five years ago, Bogo was reclassified as a city.
Mayor Celestino “Junie” Martinez Jr., who saw its rise from a quiet town of sugarcane and cornfields, yesterday said he was “alarmed” by increasing reports of drug pushing and the stirrings of youth gangs from Cebu City recruiting teenagers up north.
Martinez identified three barangays of Banban, Malingin, and Cay-ang where public high schools have students selling shabu and marijuana, a trend first reported by their barangay captains.
Martinez asked the Philippine Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) to send agents to check what they suspect are activities of a drug syndicate in Bogo.
The problems are beyond the local police to solve, said the mayor, after meeting yesterday in Cebu City with officials of PDEA-7, Bogo City councilors and Bogo police.
“While we were able to bring down the crime rate last year, now we have another problem with youth offenders and drugs,” Martinez said in a news conference later.
He said he met face-to-face last December with Bogo youth gang members and their parents who didn’t know their children were already members of the Bloods and Crips gangs.
Yesterday’s hour-long meeting between Martinez; PDEA’s Gelho Paca, chief of operations; Ryan Tecson, PDEA chief of intelligence; Bogo police officials and city councilors was held at the Rajah Park Hotel.
Chief Insp. Ceferino Tabay Jr., Bogo police chief, said they noticed the trend of increasing illegal drug trade in the public high schools around November and December of last year.
He agreed with the mayor that this may be part of a syndicate whose activities reach other towns of the 4th district and across the sea to Masbate province because of Bogo’s port.
“Bogo is very strategically located and they can easily transport drugs to other areas,” said Martinez, who believes the illegal drugs supply comes from Cebu City.
A roll-on-roll-off boat plies a daily four-hour trip to Cawayan town in Masbate province from Pulambato Port in Bogo City.
Martinez said PDEA officials promised to study the situation in Bogo for one week and give him feedback.
Bogo City has about 10 government high schools.
Chief Insp. Tabay said police had difficulty making arrests because students involved in drugs were below 18 years old and can’t be arrested under the Juvenile Justice Act.
Bogo is located 101 kilometers north of Cebu City and has a population of about 85,000 residents. The area, a producer of sugar and corn, is fast transforming into an agro-industrial and retail hub since its conversion into a city beginning 2007.
The mayor, who used to be 4th district congressman, said families in Bogo City are dealing with recruitment campaigns of urban gangs like the Bloods and Crips that enjoy notoriety in metropolitan cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
“We’re not just talking of male members here. There are even female members,” Martinez said.
Police said they have identified 60 Bloods members and 40 Crips members in Bogo City. Last December, law enforcers arrested two teenagers for the killing of two other people in different cases. Charges of frustrated murder were filed, but the youths who were below 18 were turned over to social workers.
“We were able to file the charges because we believe that these two acted with discernment,” the police chief, Tabay, said.
Mayor Martinez said he met with identified Bloods and Crips youth members last December.
“We invited them and their parents, who were crying because they didn’t know their children were already gang members,” Martinez said.
“Ang kaning mga bataa hilas raba kaayo manubag kung imong pangutanon, mura ug mga dagkong tao (Those kids would talk back arrogantly like smart alecky adults),” Martinez recalled.
It’s admittedly a new problem for Bogo officials, said Martinez.
“We called the meeting because we know that these gangs have been actively recruiting members.”
With this and drug use on their minds, “I told the barangay captains that we will go to Cebu City and ask PDEA ourselves so we can solve this problem.”