Gubernatorial bet, 5 others face drug raps

BUTUAN CITY — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Caraga regional office has already filed charges against a gubernatorial bet and five other suspects in illegal drugs trade. PDEA filed the complaint on Thursday before the Surigao City Prosecutor’s Office. Named in the charge sheet for possible violation of R.A 9165 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act were: Ricardo Seguin Ecleo alias Kayoy, 43; his wife Arlinda Cangui Ecleo alias Nene, 32; Glen Abian Sykimite, 39; Jose Bual Cariaga, 42; Genalyn Liambanosi Lorega, 26; and independent Surigao del Norte gubernatorial bet Ruperto Eludo Deguiño, 50. All are residents of Surigao City. According to Intelligence Agent 3 Joel Plaza, also acting deputy PDEA regional director for Caraga who heads the shabu buy bust team, Deguiño was a police officer working in the narcotics division in Surigao City Police Office. Plaza said that Deguiño, Sykimite, Cariaga and Lorega face charges of violation of Section 7, Article II of R.A. 9165, while the Ecleo couple faces charges of conspiracy in the sale of dangerous drugs and maintenance of a drug den, possession of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu). Of the six facing charges, four were found positive in drug test while Deguiño and Jose Bual Cariaga were found negative, PDEA officials said. The six were supposedly arrested in a drug buy-bust operation last Tuesday in a house along M. Ortiz St. in Barangay Washington. But Deguiño claimed that he, together with Cariaga, were just visiting his friends at the house of the Ecleo couple in relation to his candidacy. In a complaint affidavit, PDEA said that one of its agent who posed as buyer of illegal drugs last March 21, 2010 reported that a certain Seguin Ecleo alias Kayoy was engaged in alleged drug pushing and used his house for the illegal activity. Plaza formed a surveillance team to keep watch on Ecleo, who during Tuesday’s raid yielded white powdered substance believed to be shabu, two mobile phones, marked money cash P1,000.00, cash money amounting to P8,990.00, two digital weighing scale, Swiss knife and other drug paraphernalia. On Thursday, the Caraga police urged the local PDEA to to file charges against the suspects soonest to avoid technical problems. [See: Police urge PDEA to file raps vs Surigao Norte gubernatorial bet, 5 others] — Ben Serrano/LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV