Cops nab 2 in drug bust

Two men were arrested by members of the Bacolod City Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group in a stakeout operation past noon yesterday allegedly for possession of illegal drugs and paraphernalia.

Senior Insp. Joemarie Occeño, CAIDSTOG team leader, identified those arrested as Joseph Espero, 37, of Purok Mabinuligon in Brgy. 30; and Rudolph Jan Raluto, 25, of La Salle Ville in Brgy. Mansilingan, both in Bacolod.

Occeño said they were conducting surveillance in Purok Sigay, when they met the two on the road. When the suspects identified them to be policemen, they tried to flee and threw away the sachets of suspected shabu they were holding.

Two elongated plastic sachets of suspected shabu and a tooter were recovered from the suspects, police records showed.

Occeño said Espero and Raluto, whom he tagged as illegal drug users, are not in their drugs watch list. Charges for illegal drug possession are being readied against the two, who are now detained at the Bacolod City police lockup cell.

Meanwhile, Occeño said the supplier of illegal drugs to addicts, who used some of the mausoleums at the Bacolod public cemetery for their pot sessions, was no longer in his residence.

Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz, city police director, has ordered the CAIDSTOG and Station 4 policemen to verify the report that the public cemetery is being used for pot sessions.

This was after the City Legal Enforcement Team recovered several empty plastic sachets, tooter, aluminum foils, and other illegal drug paraphernalia from the mausoleums at the cemetery on Valentine’s Day.*APN

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Suspect in
storeowner’s slay falls

One of the two remaining suspects in the killing of a store owner in Brgy. Villamonte, Bacolod City, last year was apprehended by members of the Bacolod City Police Special Operations Task Group, at about 5 p.m. yesterday at his residence in Brgy. Mandalagan, this city.

SOG chief, Supt. Santiago Rapiz, identified the suspect as Cerilo Belledo, “alias Boy Negro”, 29, of Purok Active, who was arrested by virtue of a warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Fernando Elumba, who denied him bail.

Belledo was tagged as one of the suspects in the killing of Emillano Serveñas, 58, of Santo Niño Village in Villamonte on April 25, 2011, by his alleged companion, Jonald Valentino, 18, of Purok Kasilingan in Hacienda Garcia, Brgy. Mansilingan, who was arrested weeks after the incident.

Valentino claimed it was Belledo, who planned the robbery and who invited him to join them, but he allegedly refused because he was going to Don Salvador Benedicto town for a vacation.

Belledo denied the allegations, claiming he was in Murcia town tilling the land of his relative when Serveñas was shot.

Serveñas died from a lone gunshot wound on his chest at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital where he was rushed several minutes after one of the suspects took P800 in cash collection from his wife and shot him, police records showed.*APN

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Pickpockets victimize
2 on jeepneys

Two jeepney passengers were victimized by pickpockets in Bacolod City, Monday and Tuesday.

Celeste Famador, 57, of East Homes Subdivision in Brgy. Etefania, Bacolod, told the police that she discovered her wallet gone from her pocket at about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday while she was on board a jeepney plying the Shopping-La Salle route at Burgos Street.

Famador claimed her wallet, which contained identification and ATM cards and P4,000 in cash, could have been stolen by a man who was seated beside her.

She identified the suspect, through the police’s rogues’ gallery, as a certain “Roberto delos Santos” of Purok Lampirong in Brgy. 2, the police said.

Myra Mercano, 58, of Burgos Street in Pontevedra town, Negros Occidental, also reported that she found her wallet gone when she alighted from a passenger jeep in front of the Department of Agrarian compound in Purok Dawis, Brgy. 14, Bacolod, at about 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Mercano believed her wallet was stolen by a fellow passenger, a male, who was sitting beside her. She added that her wallet contained identification and ATM cards and P2,400 in cash.

The police reiterated their warning to the public to secure their things and be vigilant when they are riding public utility vehicles, to avoid being victimized by pickpockets.*APN

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