Scion of pol clan nabbed, faces drug trade raps

OZAMIZ CITY—Drug-related cases are now being prepared against a scion of a Misamis Occidenal political clan after he yielded suspected “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) during his arrest in Dipolog City on Wednesday.

Agapito Yap III, also councilor of Baliangao town, was arrested by a team of police and antinarcotics agents from the provinces of Misamis Occidental and Zamboanga del Norte after a brief chase, which followed a buy-bust operation in Yap’s apartment in Dipolog City.

Jury Rocamora, an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said the buy-bust operation was initiated by antinarcotics agents in Misamis Occidental but was to be consummated in Dipolog City.

Rocamora added that Yap is also engaged in shabu retail in Dipolog City.

He said agents were staking out for Yap at his apartment around 10 p.m., when he drove off aboard a pickup in an attempt to flee, triggering a chase.

He said Yap may have noticed the law enforcers approaching the apartment on a small alley leading and sensed that he was the target.

Law enforcers later discovered Yap’s vehicle abandoned about 500 meters away from his apartment along Quezon Avenue.

Rocamora said a bystander told the agents that the vehicle’s driver went into the residential compound of former Zamboanga del Norte provincial board member Uldarico Mejorada. There, they found and arrested Yap.

Recovered from Yap were four sachets of shabu weighing 2.98 grams, with an estimated value of P10,300 and paraphernalia for using the drug.

Following the arrest, the order of a Misamis Occidental court to search Yap’s house in Baliangao town was served by authorities, Rocamora said.

Yap is village chair of Barangay Punta Miray in Baliangao, a town controlled by his family for decades.

His uncle, Agne Yap, is currently Baliangao mayor. Ryan D. Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao