Negros drug suspect links more police officers to payola

Ricky Serenio —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

ILOILO CITY—A Negros Occidental-based drug suspect who claims to have delivered protection money to law enforcement personnel has implicated more policemen in the illegal drug trade.

In a 19-page supplemental affidavit subscribed on March 10, Ricky Serenio elaborated on his Jan. 13 affidavit and named eight police officials and two purported agents of the National Bureau of Investigation.

He claimed that they received from P40,000 to P200,000 per month.

Serenio also said 35 kilograms of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) were distributed monthly to eight cities and towns in Negros Occidental from the Berya group.

These included 15 kg in Bacolod City, five kg each in the cities of Kabankalan and Cadiz, and two kg each in the cities of La Carlota, Silay, Talisay and Bago, and the town of Murcia.

He reiterated his accusation in his first affidavit against Senior Supt. William Señoron, Negros Occidental police director, claiming that the official received P1.2 million monthly from drug lords in the province.

Serenio, 34, accused Señoron of having received protection money from slain Iloilo drug lord Melvin Odicta when the police official headed the Regional Intelligence Unit of the Police Regional Office in Western Visayas based in Iloilo City.

“I deny that. Those are all lies,” Señoron told the Inquirer in a telephone interview. He declined to elaborate.

In his statement issued after Serenio came out with his first affidavit, Señoron said he was a victim of a “name and shame” strategy by those who wanted him out of the province.

He also had said Serenio “allowed himself to be transformed into somebody else’s mad dog.”

Police arrested Serenio on Jan. 7 for grave coercion and illegal possession of firearms and explosives. He was initially detained at the Talisay City police station.

Citing security reasons, the Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 54 ordered Serenio’s commitment to the Pulupundan municipal police station “under the care and custody” of the town’s mayor, Miguel Peña, and his father, Moises Padilla Mayor Magdaleno Peña, a consultant of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Serenio was recently released after posting bail.

In his first affidavit, Serenio named 35 policemen and other law enforcement personnel as having received protection money from the Berya drug group, one of the largest in the province.