Village councilor faces drug raps after buy-bust ops

Emerlito Renoblas Bastasa, 37, (right in yellow shirt) a councilor of Barangay Cantavid in Maribojoc town and his friend, Roberto Butalid Amado, 49, a resident of Tagbilaran City, were detained at the TCPS detention facility pending filing of charges for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. INQUIRER Visayas

TAGBILARAN City, Bohol–A village councilor was facing charges after he was arrested in a buy-bust operation conducted by Tagbilaran City Police Station (TCPS) on Espuelas Street, this city, on Tuesday afternoon.

Emerlito Renoblas Bastasa, 37, a councilor of Barangay Cantavid in Maribojoc town and his friend, Roberto Butalid Amado, 49, a resident of Tagbilaran City, were detained at the TCPS detention facility pending filing of charges for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Seized from them were three medium size sachets and 10 strips of suspected shabu and other drug paraphernalia.

Police said Bastasa and Amado had been placed under surveillance for several months.

An undercover policeman then purchased shabu from the suspects in the house of Amado in Tagbilaran where Bastasa had been staying.

When the transaction was done, the two were immediately arrested.

Supt. George Acol Vale, chief of TCPS, warned government officials that they would face the full force of the law if caught in illegal drug activities.

“We will implement the full strength of the law against you no matter who you are, an ordinary citizen or a government official as long as you violated the law,” Vale said.

Maribojoc Vice Mayor Fructuoso Redulla Jr. said that Bastasa had not been attending the barangay sessions in Canavid for almost two months.

“We are very active against illegal drugs. There is no sacred cows here. There might be some users but we had arrested them. That is why peddlers sell drugs in other towns,” he said. TVJ