2 HELD FOR DRUGS IN PANGASINAN

SISON, Pangasinan -- Two suspected female members of a notorious drug ring
based in Metro Manila were busted early yesterday morning by the Philippine
Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) provincial office in Barangay Alac here.

Senior Supt. Antonio Valle, Jr., PDEA regional director, said Hadji Aliya
Capal y Papandayan, 44, and Farida Papandayan y Adoma alias Farida, both of
Zone 3, Bantay, Ilocos Sur, were arrested while selling seven sachets of
shabu to a PDEA poseur buyer in a bus terminal.

Valle said the suspects were arrested by the operatives led by Chief Insp.
Christopher N. Abrahano, Pangasinan PDEA provincial director, at 12:30 a.m.
Friday inside Rick's Bus terminal on MacArthur Higway in Barangay Alac.

Abrahano said before the suspects' arrest, they received a tip from an
informant that the two suspects on board a Laoag City-bound Farinas bus
were to deliver shabu in Pangasinan and Tarlac.

Abrahano immediately led a team to locate the bus.

With bundles of cut newspapers resembling P28,000 in cash, the PDEA agents
proceeded to the bus terminal.

As the suspects negotiated with undercover agents, one of the suspects
passed the seven plastic sachets of shabu weighing about 16 grams worth
P64,000 to the agent.

After handing her the boodle money, the PDEA agents quickly arrested and
detained the two at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Urdaneta
City. The provincial prosecutors office in Urdaneta City has recommended no
bail for the suspects' temporary liberty.

Valle said the suspects had been under surveillance for the past three months.

Meanwhile, the husbands of the two suspects onboard a green Revo (WFT-439)
appeared yesterday afternoon at the PDEA office for a possible out-of-court
settlement of their wives' cases but Abrahano told them their case have
been filed in a court in Urdaneta City.

The suspects' husbands denied that their wives were engaged in drug
selling, but rather in buy and sell of used clothes from China.