SHABULIZED BACOLOD? Espenido says yes, for now

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, head of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU), said yesterday Bacolod can be considered a “shabulized area” for the meantime, following the series of anti-illegal drug operations which resulted in huge volumes of recovered drugs and numerous arrests of suspected peddlers.

The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) seized P73,031,459.20 worth of illegal drugs from January to December 2019. The figure includes 6,083.026 grams of shabu valued at P72,996,312 and 152.8139 grams of marijuana worth P35,147.20.

Espenido urged the people to speak and tell the authorities the source of the illegal drugs here.

Citing information gathered from suspects arrested in other areas outside Negros, Bacolod City appears to be the main source of illegal drugs.

“Kayo sa Bacolod, magsalita kayo kung saan galing ang drugs. Hanapin natin,” he said.

Espenido said he can operate even outside Bacolod if he wants to go against drug personalities.

“Sana mag-stop na sila. Nakatikim na kayo ng experience na mayaman. Kasama kayo dapat sa war against illegal drugs to go against your protectors in the government,” he said.

Despite the police’s intensified campaign on illegal drugs, Espenido said that drugs still exist here.

“Iyon ang dapat nating malaman, kung hanggang kailan,” he said.

He said there’s no timeline to fully eradicate drugs here but police will do their best.

“Si God lang ang nakakaalam. We must do our best and God will do the rest,” he added.

Earlier, authorities denied that Bacolod is the source of illegal drugs, claiming that contrabands are sneaked in the city because Negros Occidental is a transhipment area. Drug peddlers take advantage of the island’s vast shorelines to evade authorities.

In previous years, President Rodrigo Duterte had tagged Iloilo City as “most shabulized city” and the bed rock of illegal drugs.

But Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, regional police director of Western Visayas, also earlier clarified that Bacolod is not as problematic as Iloilo City had been before.