LAWMEN RAID HOUSE OF ZAMBALES OFFICIAL

CASTILLEJOS, Zam-bales-Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement
(PDEA) swooped down Friday on a house allegedly belonging to a top
Zambales official to search for shabu and arrested a policeman-aide of
the official who was in possession of high-powered firearms and ammunition.

Anselmo Avenido, the PDEA director general, declined to identify the
Zamables official but he tagged the policeman as Senior Police Officer
4 Orlando Cadawas. Also arrested was a still unidentified assistant of
Cadawas.

Some 50 PDEA agents, led by Avenido and Rodolfo Caisip, PDEA assistant
director general, raided a house at San Diego Subdivision in Barangay
San Jose here on Friday morning.

The police were accompanied by three K-9 sniffing dogs that search the
house for shabu, but they instead found in Cadawas' possession high
powered firearms and ammunitions, such as an M-16 rifle, an AK-47
rifle and assorted ammunition.

The raid was conducted based on four search warrant issued by Judge
Enrico Lazamas of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 07.

The warrants was issued by Senior Police Officer 2 Roque Bernabeo,
operative investigator of the K-9 unit detailed with the PDEA at Fort
Bonifacio, and his witnesses Reynaldo de la Cruz and Bonifacio Andrade.

Although the PDEA agents did not find the shabu, the police arrested
Cadawas and a still unidentified caretaker of the house. They were
both brought to the PDEA headquarters in Makati City.

Before they were transported to Metro Manila, Cadawas and his
caretaker were brought to Vice Mayor Enrique Clarin of
Castillejos.

A simultaneous raid was also conducted on a Taiwanese farm, owned and
operated by one Stinnes Huang of Gin Queen Corp., in Barangay
Balaybay. The search on the Taiwanese farm was conducted under search
warrant 04-5305, issued by Judge La-zamas.

The police were looking for an undetermined amount of cultured and
fully grown marijuana plants as well as processed marijuana leaves and
other drug parapher-nalia, but the raid, in coordination with the
Barangay captain of Barangay Looc, Balaybay Re-settlement, also
yielded negative results.

The Taiwanese company operates a plantation for green leafy vegetables
and fruit, being distributed to clients in Manila and markets in
nearby provinces.

Vice Mayor Clarin said the raid has created commotion and disturbed
the farm's operation. He also cited that the company was the lone
foreign investor in the municipality.

Clarin, meanwhile, assured the PDEA officials that the local
government here will initiate immediate action and coordinate with the
PDEA in case they got hold of information of any illegal drug trade in
the town.