SHABU IS PASIG NEIGHBORHOOD'S MAIN TRADE

Police and government narcotics agents on Friday raided a shabu bazaar
in the middle of a shanty neighborhood behind the Pasig City Hall and
rounded up as many as 400 people.

The scale of the clandestine backyard operations so infuriated the
Philippine National Police chief, Director General Arturo Lomibao,
that he promptly sacked the precinct commander, put all his
subordinates on retraining, and announced the possible dismissal of
the Eastern Police District director and the Pasig police chief.

"Heads will roll. Hindi puwedeng ma-maintain iyan kung hindi alam ng
pulis natin [Nobody can maintain that extensive operation without the
knowledge of our police]," Lomibao said.

Lomibao refused to even talk to the Eastern Police District director,
Chief Supt. Oscar Valenzuela, and the Pasig police chief, Senior Supt.
Raul Medina, as he surveyed the cluster of shanties inside the
Mapayapa Compound in Barangay Santo Tomas.

About a hundred agents from the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations
Task Force, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Philippine
National Police Special Action Force swept through the compound, which
is about 500 meters from a police station.

At the entrance to the compound is a large sign, bearing Mayor Vicente
Eusebio of Pasig's signature, warning the public against drug abuse
and reminding it to spare the children from the effects of illegal
drugs.

Lomibao dismissed Senior Insp. Salvador de la Cruz, Police Community
Precinct 20, and ordered all seven of his men to undergo retraining.
The members of the precinct will also be tested for illegal drugs.

Lomibao directed the National Capital Regional Police Office chief,
Director Vidal Querol, to decide the fate of Valenzuela and Medina.

He described the compound as a tiangge (bazaar) made up of an
"elaborate maze of 100 shanties" serving as drug dens.

At least five shanties at the entrance to the compound, believed to be
the waiting area, posted signs that read "Shabu-Shabu Restaurant" and
listed the prices of shabu ranging from P10 to P40. Plastic tooters
were on a table.

Among those rounded up were women and at least 50 minors, who were
turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development. The
men were taken to the Crime Laboratory Services office for drug testing.

Seized were a sack full of aluminum foil and half a sack of
tooters.

The raiders also found two kilograms of shabu in small plastic packets
as well as assorted guns and ammunition.

The shabu bazaar has been in operation for three years.

"I find it incomprehensible that these things have happened right in
the middle of this area with policemen around," Lomibao said.

"I will let Colonel Medina explain why these things have been
happening. I will let the members of the AID-SOTF of Pasig City and
the EPD explain to me why these things have been happening, and if
they cannot explain, then heads will roll," Lomibao said.