Arroyo kin, 2 others nabbed in drug bust

BACOLOD CITY—A grandson of the late Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo was wounded during a drug bust that targeted a village official in this city on Monday night, police said.

Joshua Ignacio Arroyo, his stepbrother Christian Joseph Mijares and Barangay 35 village chief Manuel “Maui” Huelar Jr., the subject of the buy-bust operation, were arrested by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) personnel in an inn at Liroville Subdivision here.

Julius Navales, PDEA director in Negros Island Region, said Huelar, a former player in the Metropolitan Basketball Association, was arrested after he handed a pack of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to an undercover agent.

Navales said an agent then knocked on the door of the room next to Huelar’s. But he said Arroyo tried to stop the agent from entering the room. The agent, he said, pulled the trigger of his gun when his hand was stuck in the door, hitting Arroyo.

Two sachets of suspected shabu and drug paraphernalia were recovered from Arroyo’s room, Navales said.

Mijares, who was in the room with Arroyo, was allegedly caught with a sachet of suspected shabu, a digital weighing scale and drug paraphernalia.

Mijares and Huelar denied they were selling illegal drugs. Arroyo could not be reached because he was taken to a local hospital.