Drug bust. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/EDWIN BACASMAS)
LOS BAÑOS, Laguna — A man believed to be the top supplier of drugs to showbiz stars and an unidentified cohort were killed while three others, among them a cousin of actor Robin Padilla, were arrested Thursday in San Pedro City, in Laguna province, in police operations.
Supt. Harold Depositar, San Pedro police chief, said policemen, who were serving an arrest warrant against Alvin “Vergel” Commerciante, were met with gunfire when they approached the latter’s house in Adelina Subdivision in Barangay San Vicente at 10 a.m.
Depositar said policemen returned fire, resulting in a brief shoot-out that killed an unidentified man and Commerciante, live-in partner of Criselda Padilla.
Depositar said Commerciante and his partner Padilla, who was identified by the police as the actor’s cousin, were supplying illegal drugs, such as shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and ecstasy, to showbiz stars. They allegedy belonged to group that catered to showbiz personalities.
Criselda and two other men were arrested after the firefight, according to a report from the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) police.
The warrant against Commerciante’s arrest was issued by Judge Agripino Morga of the Regional Trial Court in San Pablo City, Laguna. The operation was led by the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) based in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
Depositar said Commerciante was also known as a “hitman” of a drug lord detained in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. He did not identify the drug lord but said their information showed that Commerciante had targeted pushers who failed to remit drug money to financiers.
“The [couple] had been renting the house [in San Pedro] for two years. They were not what you call street pushers. Even village [officials] did not know about their activities,” Depositar said.
He said the police recovered a still undertermined amount of shabu, weighing scales and several passports from the suspects’ house.
In a separate telephone interview, Senior Supt. Randy Peralta, AIDG supervisor for Southern Luzon, said the police, as ofThursday afternoon, were still documenting the evidence recovered from Commerciante’s house, as well as establishing the identities of the other suspects. SFM