As Bakhaw drug trade wanes, cops keep eye on Desamparados, other villages

By Jennifer P. Rendon

It did not take long for illegal drug personalities to dash off from Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao, Iloilo after police again trained their sight on the shabu trade in the area.

Colonel Joeresty Coronica, Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) director, said a few weeks since he assumed post, the illegal drug trade has weakened in Bakhaw.

Illegal drug personalities based in Bakhaw, a village once labeled as Iloilo City’s drug haven, have reportedly transferred to other areas in Iloilo City. Others relocated to the province.

One of the areas that became the temporary refuge of illegal drug personalities is the adjacent village of Desamparados in Jaro district.

“It’s a conducive area for those who don’t want to leave Bakhaw since a river just separates the two villages,” Coronica said.

On Sunday, 11 persons were arrested in a police anti-illegal drug on a suspected drug den in Barangay Desamparados.

Members of the Iloilo City Police Office-City Drug Enforcement Unit (ICPO-CDEU), together with the Iloilo City Police Station 3, also seized shabu worth P408,000.

Prior to this, other suspected drug personalities from Desamparados were also arrested in another operation.

But aside from Desamparados, Coronica said there are other villages in City Proper district that remain on ICPO’s watch list.

“As I’ve said, even if illegal drug trade has waned in a certain area, there’s more reason that we should sustain our intensified anti-illegal drug campaign,” he said.

Coronica said the ICPO’s gains – from arrests of high-value individuals to lowering the drug supply coming in the metropolis – should be bolstered further.