Couple arrested in drug buy-bust in Iloilo

ILOILO CITY — A couple are facing charges after P18.3 million worth of drugs were seized from them in a buy-bust operation at the port of Dumangas town in Iloilo on Sunday night.

Jose Alberto Pinaga, 32, and his common-law wife, Maebelle Belmonte, 30, both from Negros Occidental, were detained at the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) in Iloilo City pending filing of charges for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

They were presented at a news conference at Camp Delgado, headquarters of the Police Regional Office in Western Visayas (PRO-7) on Monday morning, more than 12 hours after they were arrested in a buy-bust operation at the parking lot of the port around 8:30 p.m. in Barangay Sapao.

Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba, Iloilo provincial director, said the two traveled in a rented Duramax pick-up vehicle and on roll-on, roll off vessels from Batangas to Caticlan port in Aklan and to Dumangas. They were on their way to Bacolod City in Negros Occidental.

The couple were traveling with their 7-year-old child, according to a statement from the Philippine National Police in Western Visayas.

Memmbers of the IPPO, the Negros Occidental Police Office, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Coast Guard first confiscated two sachets of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) weighing 10 grams and the buy-bust money amounting to P50,000.

They later found two more sachets of suspected shabu weighing 10 grams and a big plastic bag weighing a kilo.

Based on information provided by Pinaga, police conducted a follow-up operation and arrested Corazon Vergel in Barangay Mandalagan in Bacolod City around 5 a.m.on Monday.

It was not clear, however, what kind of information Pinaga provided to the police that led to the operation on Vergel.

But the police said they seized about 15 grams of suspected crystal meth, or shabu, worth about P180,000 from Vergel.

Tayaba said the suspects were runners who delivered drugs and received payment from buyers for a Negros Occidental-based drug group.

He said they had received information that the suspects also delivered drugs to Batangas and Cebu in December and in January. /atm