Franz Sabalones, whom the police tagged as one of the biggest drug lords in Central Visayas, surrenders to PNP chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net
Of all the individuals who yielded to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” De la Rosa, police considers Franz Sabalones as their best catch.
Even if not on the drug list, Sabalones, now the biggest drug lord in Central Visayas after his former boss drug kingpin Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz was killed, heeded the 24-hour deadline of President Rodrigo Duterte and surrendered to De la Rosa on Monday in Camp Crame.
At least 50 out of 163 persons on Duterte’s list included mayors, lawmakers, judges, members of the police turned up at the PNP headquarters and gave their testimonies to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) for civilians and PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) for uniformed personnel.
READ: Cebu town vice mayor cries mistaken ID: It’s my brother tagged in drugs
“He is the best that we got yesterday. Napakarami n’yang binibigay na information (He gave us a lot of information),” CIDG head Chief Supt. Roel Obusan told reporters on Tuesday.
READ: SABALONES SURRENDERS
“Napakaraming dapat sundan kaya halos malito ‘yung ating mga investigators. Napakaganda ‘yung mga leads and it will be a very fatal blow sa mga drug operations sa kanyang kinasasakupan,” Obusan said.
(Our investigators are stumped by the number of leads they have to follow. The leads are substantial and will be a very fatal blow to the drug operations carried out by the groups he belongs to.)
The police official said the CIDG is readying charges against Sabalones, who had admitted his involvement in the illegal drug trade in Central Visayas.
During the questioning which lasted for more than 10 hours, Sabalones revealed to the investigators the names of policemen protecting drugs in his area.
“He identified personalities. However, although in-identify niya ‘yung mga personalities na iyon, we have to get solid proof pa for a better case na i-file natin (although he identified those personalities, we still have to get solid proof so we can file better cases against them),” Obusan said.
On Monday, De la Rosa said Sabalones confessed to him that he had been giving a “weekly payola” of P200,000 to a police colonel in Cebu whom De la Rosa declined to identify. The police colonel, De la Rosa said, has been transferred to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao regional police.
“Baka mapatay ko ‘yung colonel na ipapatawag. Hawakan ko leeg at baliin ko leeg kapag nasa harap ko siya (I might kill that colonel once I meet him. I will choke him and break his neck),” the PNP chief said.
De la Rosa also revealed to the media that Sabalones was Diaz’s underling who later broke away from the slain drug kingpin’s group, directly dealing with from Peter Co, a Chinese drug lord detained at the New Bilibid Prisons.
Diaz was killed in an antinarcotics operation in Las Piñas last June.
Aside from Co, Sabalones also sourced drugs from a certain David Sy. De la Rosa, however, refused to elaborate on the matter. IDL