In Bohol, killings highlight drugs

A RESIDENT of Banacon Island in Getafe town, Bohol, views the remains of suspected drug lord Rowen Secretaria, who was killed during a raid by Cebu policemen on his hideout on the island. TONEE DESPOJO/CEBU DAILY NEWS

A week after a suspected drug lord was killed on Banacon Island in Getafe town, Bohol, another fell in the province, this time in Inabanga town.

The killings are stirring Boholanos for having magnified the problem of illegal drugs, especially in the second district where Getafe and Inabanga belong.

Questions have also been raised as to why it took the Cebu-based policemen took so long to stop the activities of the suspects, Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria in Banacon and David Mellomida Anunciado in Inabanga.

Insp. Rolando Lumanas Antipolo, police chief of Inabanga, said Anunciado was a drug lord who also led a robbery and private armed group in northern Bohol. He described Anunciado as “elusive” after policemen twice failed in their attempts to arrest him.

The same description was given to Secretaria, who had managed to elude Bohol policemen. Yet, police teams led by the Regional Special Operations Group in neighboring Cebu were able to corner him and Anunciado, and their underlings.

Cebu policemen

Secretaria and his two runners were killed in what police said was a gunfight in his lair in Banacon before sunrise of May 28. The same unit killed Anunciado and four of his men, arrested three others, and seized P3 million worth of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) in Barangay Cawayan, 5 kilometers from the town center of Inabanga on June 5.

Supt. Ricky Delilis, spokesperson of the Bohol provincial police, said the operations conducted by the Cebu police were coordinated with his unit. He said, though, that the mission to get Secretaria and Anunciado fell on the laps of the Cebu police because of an information leak.

Why had the drug lords been operating in Bohol for a long time? Delilis blamed some local officials for protecting them. He declined to elaborate, saying this was classified information.

But the officer insisted that the local police had not been remiss on its task to curb the illegal drug trade in the province. “We will continue our aggressive campaign,” he said.

In a report on May 23, the Bohol police said it conducted 53 operations against illegal drugs in April and May, and seized shabu with a street value of at least P20 million.

Half of the nine towns and one city with drug problems are found in the second district, Delilis said. These are the towns of Getafe, Inabanga, Talibon, Clarin and Ubay.

The rest are the capital city of Tagbilaran and the towns of Panglao, Tubigon and Dauis in the first district, and Carmen town in the third district.

Second district

It was not a mere coincidence that Secretaria and Anunciado had bases in the same second district, Delilis said.

In January, a suspected drug lord and gun-for-hire leader, Elly Job Cabahug, popularly known as “Tatay,” was killed in a shootout at a resort in Getafe’s island-village of Jagoliao.

Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (second district), said his congressional area was the most vulnerable because of its location. It has 35 island-villages and is close to Cebu, one of the key markets and supply sources of drug syndicates.

Most towns in the second district are facing Cebu. Inabanga and Getafe are just 30 minutes by boat from Cebu’s Mactan Island.

Aumentado said the islanders had been keeping their mouths shut because the drug lords were financially assisting them. Such was the case of Secretaria, who had been generous to his neighbors in Banacon.

Drug lords buy loyalty from island residents and turn communities “into one solid network of intelligence to protect the illegal trade,” Aumentado said.

He said authorities should have intensified the campaign against illegal drugs a long time ago. “I have, many times, coordinated with police and NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) to do something drastic to prevent the drug menace from reaching this level of proliferation,” he said.

Moreover, the Peace and Order Council should map out plans to eradicate the drug problem.

“Our authorities should honestly tell the people the true state of the province relative to the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs to show that their position is not only for show,” Aumentado said.