PASIG NEIGHBORHOOD YIELDS DRUG 'TIANGGE'

This is not your ordinary tiangge or flea market.

Pasig City police and anti-narcotics agents apprehended yesterday at
least 200 people, including women and minors, and confiscated over
half a kilo of shabu, half a sack of tooters and an undetermined
amount of money during a raid on a shantytown compound that served as
a tiangge (flea market) where the drug could be bought, sold and used.

Joint elements of the police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations
Task Force (AIDSOTF) and the Special Action Force (SAF) stormed the
drug den located at a 600-square meter compound in a squatter area
called Sitio Mapayapa on F. Soriano street in Barangay Palatiw and
caught the suspects in the act of buying, selling and sniffing shabu
at 11:30 a.m.

The drug den is located behind the Mutya ng Pasig public market, a few
blocks from Pasig City Police Precinct 20 and just 500 meters away
from the EPD headquarters along Caruncho Avenue.

At the entrance to the drug den stands a sign by the Pasig City local
government that reads: "Ingatan ang anak sa droga (protect your
children from drugs)."

AIDSOTF chief Director Marcelo Ele Jr. said the suspects gave
themselves up after realizing they were surrounded by some 100 police
raiders armed with a search warrant issued by Executive Judge
Natividad Giron-Dizon of Quezon City.

There were at least 40 shanties at the Mapayapa compound and Ele said
all the structures were used as drug dens for entertaining shabu
buyers and users on a 24-hour basis.

Besides the shabu, the raiders also confiscated an undetermined amount
of cash of different denominations - believed to be proceeds from the
sale of the prohibited drugs. They also seized two caliber .45
pistols, a carbine rifle and a caliber .38 revolver.

'Heads Will Roll'

"Heads will roll on our police force," warned Philippine National
Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao, who rushed to the
scene after receiving reports of the raid.

With Lomibao were Eastern Police District (EPD) director Chief
Superintendent Oscar Valenzuela and other ranking local and government
officials, including National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO)
chief Director Vidal Querol.

A fuming Lomibao said he was surprised that the local police failed to
monitor the activities of the drug dealers, headed by a certain Dario
who is believed to be among those arrested in the raid.

"It is incomprehensible for me that these things will happen right in
the middle of an area with policemen around," Lomibao said. "I am
dismayed, to say the least, because this is right in a neighborhood.
There was even a menu listing shabu prices, so it's like a wet market.
It's ridiculous."

Pasig City police chief Senior Superintendent Raul Medina was asked to
explain how he and his command could allow such illicit drug
activities to happen when the government has stepped up the war on
illegal drugs.

"I will let Colonel Medina explain why these things have been
happening," a visibly irked Lomibao said. "I will let the members of
the AIDSOTF of Pasig City and the EPD explain to me why these things
are happening and, if they cannot explain, heads will roll."

Medina said his personnel were not remiss in their campaign against
illegal drugs, despite the proximity of the drug den to EPD
headquarters.

"We arrested a big number of pushers and users but they were all back
on the streets after several days," Medina said in a radio interview.

Querol ordered the relief and retraining of Pasig City Police Precinct
20 commander Senior Inspector Salvador de la Cruz and the six
policemen under his command for their failure to monitor the illegal
drug activities in the Mapayapa drug den, which is within their area
of jurisdiction.

He has also ordered Valenzuela to investigate Medina and submit a
written report on the matter as soon as possible.

De la Cruz took the relief order calmly, saying in a radio interview
that "I'm new here and I've just come out of training, so I did not
immediately learn of their (drug) operations. We have already caught a
lot of (drug pushers) in that area but they always get back out on the
street." Sale Open

Ele said a team headed by Superintendent Jojo Acierto, of the Special
Operations Unit 3 (SOU) conducted over two weeks of surveillance in
the area amid reports that shabu is openly sold to buyers, some of
whom come from nearby cities and towns.

He said one gram of shabu costs P5,000 in the drug den, adding that
drug users who go there to sniff shabu pay P300 per session. "The team
of Acierto conducted two test buys in the said area and both yielded
positive results," said Ele.

After making successful test-buys, AIDSOTF Senior Inspector Ismael
Fajardo applied for a search warrant and, together with Acierto, led a
team of raiders, who arrived in three trucks and seven cars, to
conduct the raid on the compound.

"We encountered no resistance," Fajardo said. "They were caught with
their pants down." He said some of the suspects managed to escape but
were cornered after a brief chase.

"All the shanties came with their own tables where the drugs are sold
to customers and where the buyers could get high," Fajardo said of the
place he has christened "little Nicaragua" after one of the Latin
American countries that gained notoriety for its illegal drug trade.

Pasig City Mayor Vicente Eusebio said he will order the demolition of
the shanties in the Mapayapa compound. "When drug pushers are caught,
they just return to the compound, so we will demolish (the
shantytown)," he said, adding that the compound residents should just
"return home to their provinces."

As of press time, Ele said his men are conducting the documentation of
the suspects and making an inventory of the seized shabu, cash,
firearms and assorted drug-sniffing paraphernalia.

The AIDSOTF chief has also ordered Senior Inspector Lyra Valera of his
legal staff to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) in dealing with the arrested minors.

Those arrested will be brought to the custodial center of Camp Crame
where they will temporarily be jailed. - With Cecille Suerte Felipe