Volvo-driving, condo-living ‘communist hit man’ back in jail for drugs

CLEARED OF MURDER, BUSTED FOR DRUGS Rafanan refused to answer questions from the press when presented at Camp Karingal on Saturday.—NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

An alleged member of the communist hit squad Alex Bongcayao Brigade (ABB), who was freed last year after a decade in detention, was thrown back in jail after being arrested in an antidrug operation on Friday, according to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD).

Members of the QCPD Fairview station entrapped Jefferson Rafanan, 30, in a buy-bust operation in front of a hotel on Magnolia Street, Barangay Greater Fairview, around 4 p.m.

A follow-up operation three hours later at Bistekville II, a government housing project in Barangay Kaligayahan, led to the arrest of Rafanan’s alleged supplier, Rommel Buenaventura, 40, and his courier, Nenchie Narvas, 38.

A total of 14 sachets containing 160 grams of suspected “shabu” with an estimated street value of P800,000 were recovered from the suspects.

On watch list

Rafanan, who was on the drug watch list of the Fairview police station, was also caught carrying a .45-caliber pistol.
The police also seized a black Volvo (UHL 367) from Rafanan and a gold Toyota Altis (ZDA 149) from Buenaventura and Narvas.

Rafanan claimed that he merely borrowed the Volvo and that he was jobless.

Surveillance operations, however, found him renting a condominium unit in Barangay Bagong Silangan for P18,000 a month.

Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, QCPD director, said Rafanan admitted during interrogation that he used to be involved in the ABB and later in another leftist group, Partido Marxista-Leninista ng Pilipinas.

Before Rafanan became a QCPD target as a drug suspect, Eleazar said, the team who launched Friday’s sting was not aware that he once faced multiple murder charges.

Rafanan was 20 years old when he was arrested in 2006, also by the QCPD, for the killing of lawyer Rodolfo Paglinawan, a legal adviser of a labor union, inside a fast food restaurant at Araneta Center in Cubao.

Earlier cases

Eleazar said Rafanan had also been linked to the killing of Armscor Philippines executive vice president Danilo de la Paz in May 2004, Manila Police District-Sta. Mesa station commander Senior Supt. Manolo Martinez in October that same year, and Barangay Pansol, Quezon City, chair Rodrigo Borgonia in October 2003.

Eleazar said Rafanan was detained in the Metro Manila District Jail (MMDJ) in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, for a decade while on trial.
The charges were eventually dismissed for lack of evidence and Rafanan was released in January 2016.

Also seized from Buenaventura were several money remittance receipts, which Eleazar said could be from the drug transactions he made while he was an inmate also at the MMDJ. He noted that the suspect had spent three years in the Taguig jail on a drug-related charge.

“We are coordinating with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Philippine National Police-Drug Enforcement Group for any leads on their possible supplier,” Eleazar said, adding that they suspect the involvement of a foreigner.