Antidrug raids in Mimaropa: 232 arrest, zero fatality

SAN PEDRO CITY — At least 232 people were arrested, without any deaths, during a one-day antidrug police operation in the region of Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan).

The arrested included a policeman previously assigned to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and a member of a village peacekeeping team.

PO3 Rey Basilio delos Santos, 39, assigned to the ARMM before his stint in Mindoro, was arrested in a buy-bust operation in the village of San Roque 2 in Occidental Mindoro.

Rodel Entible Azucena, 45, a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping and Security team in the same village, was arrested with Delos Santos during the same antidrug operation.

Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, regional police director, in a report said most of the arrests were made in Palawan where 129 persons were held. At least 35 persons were arrested in Marinduque and 27 captured in Oriental Mindoro.

Anticrime drive

The “One-time, Big-time” operation on Aug. 25 targeted suspects involved in illegal drugs, persons wanted for various crimes, illegal gambling and illegal firearms, Mayor said.

The operation led to the confiscation of 54 sachets of suspected “shabu” (crystal meth) and three sachets of suspected marijuana.
According to the regional police report, among the targets were Aramando Bantag, alias “Arman Kabog.” Delos Santos and Azucena were in Bantag’s house during the operation.

Police said law enforcers recovered a sachet of shabu from Delos Santos during the buy-bust operation.

Police had been under fire for an escalating death toll in the implementation of Oplan Double Barrel and Oplan Tokhang, the two main components of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.