MANILA, Philippines—Are more and more barangay councilmen moonlighting as drug pushers?
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said on Thursday it arrested a third barangay councilman this year trying to sell a sachet of “shabu,” or methamphetamine hydrochloride, to an undercover agent.
Hospicio P. Lachica Jr., a “kagawad” or councilman of Barangay Mandaragat in Puerto Princesa City, was caught red-handed selling a plastic sachet of shabu in the buy-bust operation at the parking lot of a restaurant on Malvar Street in Barangay San Miguel, the agency said.
In a statement, PDEA Director General Jose S. Gutierrez Jr. said the operation was held at about 7:20 p.m. by members of PDEA’s Palawan Provincial Office and the police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group.
A mobile phone and a gray Honda XRM motorcycle, with plate number 3417 WF, were seized in the operation.
Gutierrez said Lachica had been under surveillance by PDEA agents prior to his arrest “for his notoriety in pushing illegal drugs in the province of Palawan.”
The suspect was the third barangay councilman arrested by PDEA in 2012, the official said.
Lachica faces charges of violating Section 5 (sale of dangerous drugs) under Article II of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.