COP ACCUSED OF TRYING TO STOP DRUG BUY-BUST

A POLICEMAN allegedly tried to stop operatives of the Maritime police and
the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) when they conducted a
buy-bust operation in Parker Beach, Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City Thursday night.

According to Senior Insp. Ranulfo Sebusa, a certain PO3 Leodegario
Ibano--initially identified by the Maritime police as Gario Dano--pointed
his firearm at them when they tried to arrest Onelito Jumao-as.

Jumao-as allegedly sold two decks of suspected shabu worth P200 to a
poseur-buyer.

But PO3 Ibano told Sun.Star in a telephone interview yesterday that he
merely wanted to check out what the commotion was all about, and left after
seeing that it was a legitimate buy-bust. Ibano lives in the area.

It turned out that the Maritime police, which has a detachment in Barangay
Marigondon, failed to coordinate with the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station
about the operation.

Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Paquito Belandres will investigate once he
receives a formal complaint.

Ranulfo Sebusa of the Maritime police visited Belandres yesterday to inform
him about the incident.

He said it was the PDEA operatives who called the shots in that operation,
that's why there was no coordination between the Maritime Group and the
Lapu-Lapu police.

The Maritime Group is a PNP national support unit that is under the Police
Regional Office 7.

During the buy-bust, Jumao-as also allegedly yielded 95 decks of suspected
shabu, two packs of suspected shabu, drug paraphernalia, P1,230 and five
.38 bullets.

Sebusa believes Ibano was protecting Jumao-as because he refused to let the
Maritime operatives arrest the suspect despite identifying themselves as
policemen three times.

Belandres said they have no policeman named Gario Dano, but they have two
officers with the same surname.

He said he knows SPO2 Jose Dano and PO2 Aldin Dano are both family men and
are not the type to resort to illegal transactions.

According to Sebusa, Jumao-as sells the shabu not far from their Marigondon
detachment.

After the Maritime police received information about his trade, they put
Jumao-as under surveillance for one week.

Four operatives, including a poseur-buyer, approached Jumao-as to buy two
decks of shabu at 10:30 p.m. last Thursday.

After the transaction was completed, they immediately arrested Jumao-as,
who allegedly struggled to get free.

PO1 Napoleon Taneo told reporters that as Jumao-as was struggling, about 50
of Jumao-as' friends and relatives approached and tried to stop them from
arresting him.

He said Ibano was drinking at a store nearby and when he noticed the
commotion, he stood up and approached them as well.

"He was carrying his .45 pistol, so we immediately identified ourselves as
policemen from Maritime," Taneo said.

Ibano's companion, Taneo said, even tried to lower the policeman's firearm,
but Ibano pointed it at them, forcing the rest of the operatives to aim
their firearms at Ibano.

Seeing that there were four operatives, the policeman reportedly backed out
and left.

Taneo said they wanted to confront Ibano for trying to stop them from
arresting Jumao-as but he disappeared.

Sebusa said they will leave it to the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 to
decide what to do with Ibano.

They will furnish PRO 7 Director Robert Delfin a copy of the spot report of
the operation.

Jumao-as said he did not know the policeman and he was not enjoying
anyone's protection.

He initially denied owning the drugs, but later admitted he has been
selling shabu for about two months.

He said someone just delivers the drugs to his house, and sells these in
Parker Beach every night. He earned P20 for every P100 worth of shabu sold.