PASIG DRUG BUST ALSO NETTED BABY, PREGNANT GIRL, 12

A FOUR-MONTH OLD BABY. A 12-year old pregnant girl. Teenagers grown
street-wise to the illicit drug trade.

They were among the 59 minors caught with 260 adults during a police
raid of a compound of about 40 shanties serving as "one-stop shop
shabu restaurants" in Barangay Sto. Tomas in Pasig City Friday.

As of 5 p.m. yesterday, 210 urine samples had been taken from 319
suspects. A total of 70 samples have been processed, yielding various
results-some were positive for shabu, marijuana, or both, while some
were negative.

The "shabu resto" within that 600 sq. m. compound was located just
half a kilometer away from the Pasig City Hall and the Eastern Police
District headquarters. Here, drug users freely ordered grams of shabu,
rented paraphernalia and used stalls for their drug sessions.

The infant was brought by a mother into one of the stalls where she
was arrested, according to the head of the Philippine National Police
task force that led the raid.

"The mother was caught in possession of shabu. We turned over the baby
to the DSWD-Pasig City (Department of Social Welfare and Development)
and they turned it over to the grandmother," said Director Marcelo
Ele, head of the Anti-Illegal Drugs and Special Operations Task Force.

He said the pregnant 12-year-old girl was turned over to her mother.
"She was very pregnant and she was so small. She was only 12," Ele
said.

Aside from the two, the 57 minors arrested had been turned over to the
custody of the DSWD Pasig City since Friday night.

Most were boys, with the average age running between 10 to 12 years
old. The eldest was 17 and the youngest was the 4-month old infant.

There were also two pregnant girls between the ages of 16 and 17 and
they were under the DSWD's custody, according to Ele.

"They were not customers. The children were being used as runners for
the different stalls. They were exposed to the buying and selling of
shabu. What happens when they grow up?" Ele said.

He would not say if the youngsters had tested positive for
drugs.

He would only say that they took urine specimens from the boys aged 12
to 17 for drug tests.

Minors arrested for criminal offenses are tried by a juvenile court
and usually given suspended sentences.

Teenage sex workers

Ele suspects the pregnant girls they arrested were made to work as sex
workers to shabu customers, pointing to posters of nearly naked women
plastered around the compound.

He said their office had given the social workers P3,000 for the
dinner of the minors who had been turned over to the DSWD. But the
money would not last long.

"Please ask the local government officials to help. They have not
eaten," Ele told the Inquirer.

The adults arrested, meanwhile, are staying in cramped facilities at
the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

There are siblings among them, said Ele. Various charges are being
prepared against them.

"Some were apprehended inside drug dens. Some were identified as
pushers. Some were in possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.
There were a few who were drug traffickers and pushers and we have
evidence for that," he said.

Ele had described their discovery of what seemed to be a shabu flea
market an "unprecedented" operation, which he said had been going on
for about a year.

He believed the community, which called the place "Sitio Mapayapa
(Peaceful)" either tolerated the drug activity or was involved in
maintaining it.

Heads roll

President Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the police to stamp out drug dens
in Metro Manila, "whether they are in the slums or affluent
neighborhoods," deal sternly with politicians and law enforcers
involved in the trade.

"We must wield the consolidated power of all concerned agencies, the
schools, the private sector and the church, to bear upon this
challenge," Ms Arroyo said.

PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao described the drug bust as
"incomprehensible" and immediately ordered the relief of precinct
commander Senior Insp. Salvador de la Cruz and seven of his men.

Also relieved were six personnel of the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) of
the Pasig City police station and six DEU personnel of the Eastern
Police District (EPD). Other policemen will undergo drug testing,
investigation and retraining.

"We will hit hard on criminals and protectors alike. The policemen in
Pasig will be investigated and those found inept, incompetent and
corrupt will be charged administratively, and dismissed immediately if
found guilty," Lomibao said yesterday in a statement.

PNP National Capital Region Command Director Vidal Querol ordered
Pasig police chief Senior Supt. Raul Medina to explain how the brazen
drug trade could have gone on under their noses.

Querol also asked EPD head Chief Supt. Oscar Valenzuela to give a
written explanation.

"By Monday everything should be on my table. Then I will proceed,"
Querol said, adding that he will hand down his final decision
"sometime next week."

Querol told the Inquirer yesterday that his decision on whether or not
Medina would remain as Pasig City police chief will be up to the
results of the investigation conducted by Valenzuela.