Two school watchmen fall with P88,400 ‘shabu’

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Police arrested two casual government employees in a buy-bust operation in an elementary school in Barangay 3, Silay City, Negros Occidental last Thursday.

Richard Valenzuela, 43, of Barangay Mambulac, and Romel Nerio, 30, of Barangay 3, allegedly yielded 13 grams of suspected shabu worth P88,400.

Also recovered from them were the P4,000 marked money, an improvised tooter, and other non-drug items.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Mark Anthony Darroca, city police chief, said they received a report from a concerned citizen about the duo’s alleged illegal activity in the school where they were assigned as watchmen.

Darroca said they placed them under monitoring for 10 days to verify the report and then conducted the operation.

He said the duo would allegedly transact with their clients in the evening while they were on duty.

The local government hired them as casual employees for about a year now.

Two days prior to the said operation, police also seized P88,400 worth of suspected shabu in a drug bust in Barangay Mambulac last Tuesday. However, the two subjects of the operation managed to escape.