Uniformed cop caught taking ‘shabu’

As he got “high,” the image that his colleagues strive to protect hit another low.

Quezon City policemen who were supposed to be on an anti-illegal gambling mission Thursday night in the Cubao area instead caught two men allegedly holding a “shabu” session in a car, one of them a police officer in uniform.

PO2 Mark Erickson Cañete, 35, who reports to the Police Regional Office 4-B in the Mimaropa region, was arrested together with a companion, Archibald Arguelles, 34, of Aurora Boulevard, Cubao.

Mimaropa stands for the provinces of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.

In a press conference on Friday, Quezon City Police District director Chief Supt. Mario de la Vega said Canete was still in uniform when spotted taking a hit of shabu (metaphethamine hydrochloride) around 6 p.m. Thursday inside a Honda Civic parked at Hillcrest Compound in Barangay Immaculate Conception.

Canete, who was in the driver’s seat, and Arguelles were arrested by members of the QCPD Special Operations Unit who chanced upon the two men while they were conducting anti-illegal gambling operations in the area, De la Vega said.

According to the QCPD chief, Canete was ordered by his mother unit to report to Camp Crame on official business but he apparently took a detour to a slum area to buy shabu.

Seized from the two men were two plastic sachets of the illegal drug. Canete later tested positive for drug use, the official said.

The two remained in detention at the QCPD headquarters pending the filing of charges in the city prosecutor’s office.

Cañete also faces summary dismissal proceedings.