Village Chief, Village Watchman Caught Selling Drugs In Cagayan Valley

June 22, 2020 Police Patrol

BAGUIO CITY (June 19, 2020) – A barangay chairman and a barangay tanod were hauled to the jail Thursday afternoon after they were caught selling drugs in Cagayan Valley region. Elong Tumaneng, 50, incumbent Barangay Chairman of Zone 4, Brgy. San Francisco, Baggao town, Cagayan was taken by policemen after he sold a sachet of shabu to an undercover policeman at around 5:50 Thursday afternoon.

The shabu he sold to the government agent was valued at P6,800, said Cagayan Valley police director Brig. General Angelito Casimiro.

Earlier on that same day, at around 4:30PM, barangay tanod Jesus Battung, 51, of barangay Centro East, Ballesteros town, also in Cagayan was also taken by policemen after he sold three heat-sealed sachets of shabu during a sting operation hatched by policemen who had been tailing him for his illicit trade.

Battung, according to Casimiro, is included in the “High Value Individual” (HVI) and PDEA list in the local drug trade. Only on Saturday afternoon, a Canadian tourist was also caught in selling a self-locking sachet full of marijuana to an undercover government agent in Alicia town, Isabela. Kyle Norman Thompson, 30, temporarily living at barangay Antonino, Alicia, sold a sachet of dried fruiting tops of marijuana to an undercover agent in Purok Rose, barangay Calaocan, Alicia.

Policemen seized from Thompson a genuine P1,000 bill with serial number BZ907077 used as buy-bust money, the cellular phone he used in contacting the buyer whom he did not know was a government agent, and a black Honda XRM motorcycle with MV file no. 0201-00000961640.

The seized items from Thompson were properly inventoried by the authorities in the presence of barangay officials, a representative from the DOJ and a local broadcaster.

Also, on Saturday, welder Edmar Quibuyen Lozano alias Balot, 25, from Purok 6, Rizal, Santiago City, also in Isabela, was caught by the Santiago City police’s Drug Enforcement Unit led by Major Alexander Rodrigo after he sold a heat-sealed transparent sachet of shabu to a government agent.

Aside from the shabu, a P1,000 bill that authorities used as buy-bust money was also seized from Lozano, who will also face illegal drug charges.

Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN