PANGASINAN EX-MAYOR TURNS TO PEDDLING DRUGS

DAGUPAN City -- A former mayor of Mangatarem, Pangasinan was arrested
Wednesday night by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency provincial office
while selling in Barangay Bonuan Gueset here, Senior Supt. Antonio J. Valle,
PDEA regional director, reported yesterday.

Valle identified the suspect as Jessie Punzal, 44, former mayor of
Mangatarem, Pangasinan, now living in Bonuan Gueset.

Valle reported to PDEA chief Undersecretary Anselmo Avenido that Punzal is
included in their watchlist of drug personalities in the region with pending
drug trafficking case in court.

Valle said Punzal was arrested by PDEA agents headed by Chief Insp.
Christopher Abrahano, PDEA provincial director, in Sitio Sabangan, Bonuan
Gueset in a buy-bust at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday while receiving two P1,000 bills
in marked money from a poseur buryer for two plastic shachets of shabu
weighing two grams.

Punzal yielded P500 and the marked money and a 3388 Nokia cellphone when
PDEA agents nabbed him. The suspects cellphone contained the names of his
contact persons.

Punzal's arrest came after the PDEA agents received a tip that an drug
selling was ongoing in Bonuan Gueset.

Abrahano and his men proceeded at the area and saw the former mayor and his
companion selling shabu like candies.

Punzal served as mayor of Mangatarem from 1988 to 1992.

In 2001, Punzal and five others were also apprehended by the Mangatarem
policein a raid at his house in the Poblacion of Mangatarem. Several gun and
shabu weighing about 200 grams were seized from him by the police headed by
the late police chief Supt. Orlando Hilario.

The former mayor admitted selling shabu on Wednesday but denied as the
leader of illegal drug activities in the city.

However, he refused to answer why he was charged in 2001 for illegal drugs.

The city prosecutor office in Dagupan City under Prosecutor Pelagio B. Palma
recommended no bail for Punzal who was charged with violation of Republic
Act 9165 or sale of dangerous drugs.