House of mayor linked to drugs raided; grenade launcher seized

This file photo taken on September 19, 2009 shows an example of a rocket propelled grenade launcher (RPG) available in Mindanao to various groups, including Moro rebels (such as the man in the photo) war lords and politicians. AFP PHOTO

KORONADAL CITY – Police searching for drugs and other contraband on Thursday raided the house and  other properties of a South Cotabato mayor tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte as a narco-politician.

But not a single sachet of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) was found when the raiding team –led by Supt. Maximo Sebastian, the chief of Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (RAIDSOTF) of Central Mindanao — barged into the house and piggery of Banga town Mayor Albert Palencia in Barangay Punong Grande in Banga. They also searched his four cars.

They found and seized four ammunition for a .380-pistol and a grenade launcher.

Palencia later told reporters he was awakened by the noise created by the raiding team as they barged into his compound in Punong Grande around 3 a.m.

“I was surprised, but they found no drugs or guns,” Palencia said – effectively denying that the raid yielded contraband – as authorities were bringing him to the Central Mindanao police headquarters in Gen. Santos City.

Palencia’s workers said the police were looking for a shabu laboratory inside the piggery.

“We were told to drop on our bellies,” a caretaker said in the vernacular. “There’s no shabu laboratory here, what we have are swine and feeds.”

Palencia, who was the fourth elected official in Central Mindanao to have been arrested after being subjected to a search, has denied being a drug lord.

On October 10, RAIDSOTF operative also arrested Juner Coronado, chair of Barangay Koronadal Proper, and Vicente Yungco Jr., chair of Barangay Poblacion, both in Polomolok, South Cotabato, following separate raids on their properties.

Yungco, president of the Liga ng mga Barangay in South Cotabato and an ex-officio member of the provincial board, yielded a 9-millimeter pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and an ammunition but no drugs were found in his home.

Seized from Coronado were a fragmentation grenade and three rounds of ammunition, but still, no drugs.

On October 29, anti-narcotics operatives also arrested Mayor Christopher Cuan of Libungan, North Cotabato following an anti-drug raid on his home.

No shabu was also found but the police said they had seized an unlicensed M-16 rifle, a shotgun and hand guns from Cuan’s properties.

Supt. Romeo Galgo, the police regional information chief, said the anti-drug operations were legitimate and covered with search warrants.  SFM/rga

In this Sept. 27, 2016 file photo, PNP Chief Ronald Dela Rosa shows to the media the grenade launchers, high-powered guns and thousands of ammo seized from a gun running group who reportedly sold arms to the Abu Sayyaf Group, war lords and politicians in the Autonomoous Region in Muslim Mindanao. INQUIRER / RICHARD A. REYES