Misamis Occidental political scion to face drug charges

OZAMIZ CITY—Authorities are now preparing charges against a scion of a political family, and currently a municipal councilor of Baliangao, Misamis Occidental, who has been arrested in Dipolog City and described as a “big fish” in the narcotics trade in the province.

A joint team of antinarcotics agents from Misamis Occidental and Zamboanga del Norte, assisted by Dipolog City police, collared Agapito “Jojo” Yap III in Dipolog City Wednesday night after a brief chase.

According to Jury Rocamora of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), they were about to search Yap’s rented apartelle on the basis of a warrant issued by a Misamis Occidental court around 10 p.m. when he drove off aboard a pickup truck, triggering a pursuit.

Rocamora said Yap may have noticed the approaching law enforcers and sensed he was the target as PDEA operatives were on foot along a small alley towards his apartelle.

Law enforcers later discovered Yap’s vehicle abandoned about a kilometer away, along Quezon Avenue in Barangay Miputak, where a search for him ensued.

Rocamora said a bystander told them the vehicle’s driver went into the residential compound of former Zamboanga del Norte provincial board member Uldarico Mejorada, leading to Yap’s capture.

Recovered from Yap were four sachets of “shabu” weighing about two grams and paraphernalia for using the illicit substance, according to Rocamora.

Rocamora added that based on information they have, Yap is a high-value target in Misamis Occidental because he belongs to a powerful political family and due to his alleged involvement in big-time trading of narcotics in the province.

Rocamora futher said that Yap was also engaged in shabu retail in Dipolog City.

Yap represents the Liga ng mga Barangay in the municipal council of Baliangao town, a locality controlled by his family since 1946.