Cops say more pushers leaving Davao

DAVAO CITY—The city police said more drug suspects have apparently left the city, heeding a 48-hour ultimatum given to them by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, which lapsed on Wednesday.

Senior Insp. Milgrace Driz, spokesperson of the city police office, said by phone that Duterte’s warning was apparently heeded as the number of pushers opting to lie low or leave continued to increase.

Driz, however, could not provide numbers. But she said she could confirm reports that many notorious drug suspects are now nowhere to be seen in the city.

“I believe this is due to the stern warning that Mayor Duterte had issued,” she said.

Driz also said that zero arrest since Wednesday was also a sign that pushers had left the city apparently fearing the mayor’s antidrug operation.

“Our operatives had not monitored any drug trade since the ultimatum’s deadline,” said Driz.

“I hope this would be for good,” she said.

On Monday, Duterte gave drug peddlers 48 hours, or until Wednesday, to leave or be killed.

“If I see you there, I will have you killed,” said Duterte on Monday.

A day after Duterte issued the ultimatum, police operatives shot dead 38-year-old Armanuel Atienza, a member of the city’s Barangay Peace and Order Unit, after he reportedly resisted arrest during a drug buy-bust operation.

While police operatives in the city were having an apparent break from lack of drug suspects to arrest, in nearby Digos City, three suspected drug pushers had fallen during antidrug operations on Thursday and Friday.

Supt. Querubin Manalang, Digos City police director, said the operations resulted in the arrest of Ariel Enriquez, 37, a resident of Sitio Acaciahan in Barangay Zone-1 in Digos City, who yielded at least P740,000 worth of suspected “shabu” on Friday.

The operations, according to Manalang, were conducted by the city police’s antidrug task force, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), the provincial anti-illegal drugs special operations task force, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Chief Insp. Jose Teody Condesa, CIDG provincial team leader, said a search on Enriquez’s house was backed by a court warrant.

He said aside from illegal drugs, the lawmen also seized from Enriquez a hand grenade, a .22-caliber  bullet, a weighing scale and drug paraphernalia.

Manalang identified the other suspected drug pushers arrested on Thursday and Friday as Randy Gonzales and Alan Dano Balaga. Dennis Santos and Eldie Aguirre, Inquirer Mindanao