COPS NAB COMELEC OFFICIAL, 2 OTHERS IN 'SHABU SESSION'

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Lawyer Mike Abbas, provincial supervisor of the
Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Sarangani, and two other persons
were nabbed last Monday for allegedly engaging in a drug-sniffing
session. Comelec Information Director Ferdinand Rafanan said yesterday
in a radio interview that the poll body will not act on the case until
after a complete report is received from the policemen.

Abbas, 35, and the two other suspects identified as Rene Bedor, 40,
and Reynaldo Bercader were allegedly engaged in a drug session in a
house at Delfin Subdivision here when lawmen pounced on them.

Supt. Efren Alcuizar, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency
(PDEA) for Central Mindanao, said Abbas, Bercader and Bedor are in the
"watch list" of users of illegal drugs.

Police said Abbas and Bercader will be charged for drug using which is
in violation of Section 15 of the Dangerous Drugs Act as amended. The
offense requires a penalty of mandatory rehabilitation.

But since Abbas and his companions were captured in a "buy-bust"
operation, the law provides no bail bond is allowed for them. All
three were now locked up at the PDEA's detention cell, Alcuizar said.

The three will be subjected to a drug test to determine if they were
positive of "shabu."

Police records show that Abbas is the first top public official
arrested by PDEA men this year.

The arrest seemed accidental because narcotics police operatives were
chasing a certain "Johnny" who ran into a house where the three were
allegedly sniffing "shabu."

"We don't know who were inside the apartment because we were chasing
Johnny. Once inside, we saw three people in a drug session, so we
arrested them. We came to know later that Mr. Abbas was among the
three men," PO1 Alberto said.

Police said the operatives seized from the three suspects one gram of
"shabu" worth R5,000, empty shabu sachet, drug paraphernalia and shabu
residues, all placed on a table where the three were playing cards.

Johnny, tagged as a drug pusher, and a certain Bebe Odango, were able
to elude arrest.