Raid on drug lord’s hideout leads to sacking of cop chief

CEBU CITY—The chief of police of Getafe town, Bohol province was relieved of his post for failing to arrest a suspected drug lord killed by Cebu police during an anti-drug operation in one of the island-villages of the town on Saturday.

Senior Insp. Marcelino Mejias was ordered to report to the Bohol Provincial Police Office starting Wednesday while waiting for his new assignment.

Chief Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., police director for Central Visayas, said the Cebu police succeeded where Mejias failed.

Police from Cebu province raided the hideout on Banacon Island of suspected drug lord Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria on May 28 and killed Secretaria in a gunfight.

“For so long, Yawa’s (Secretaria) group has been operating in his (Mejia’s) area of jurisdiction,” said Comendador.

Comendador said the failure of the Getafe town police force to arrest Secretaria is a puzzle to him “when the Getafe police office is just a 20-minute boat ride away” from the suspected drug lord’s hideout.

Comendador said investigators are looking into the possibility that Secretaria’s group is being protected by authorities in the area.

But Mejias said Secretaria did not stay long in Banacon Island.

“To be honest, we had a hard time monitoring Secretaria,” said Mejias. “He seldom visited the island. And if he dropped by, his visit would not take long,” he said in a phone interview.

Policemen from the Central Visayas regional and Cebu provincial police forces raided the two-story house of Secretaria in Banaco and were met with gunfire during the raid that started around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Aside from Secretaria, also killed during the gunfight were Dario Torremocha, 56, a resident of Banacon Island; and John Jason Montes, 23, a resident of Barangay Ermita in Cebu City.

Secretaria was tagged as the third most wanted drug suspect in Cebu City who had at his disposal up to five kilograms of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) per week.

Data from the Dangerous Drugs Board place the street value of five kg of shabu at around P59 million.

A witness, who refused to be identified but said he saw the raid, said one of those killed, Montes, was already raising his hand to surrender when he was shot by the raiding team.

Montes’ mother on Monday requested the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct an investigation on her son’s death.