The official of the Department of Education and six other men, including two minors, arrested at an alleged drug den in Purok Maabi-abihon in Brgy. Banago Bacolod City, tested positive for shabu use, City Police Director, Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz confirmed yesterday.

De la Paz said they are preparing the documents needed to file charges for illegal drug use against Joshua Santillana, 55, of Fortune Towne Subdivision in Brgy. Villamonte and a DepEd District Supervisor assigned in Cadiz City.

The drug test conducted by Police Regional Office-6 Crime Laboratory forensic chemist Insp. Hernand Gutierrez Donado, and revealed by de la Paz to the media yesterday, showed that aside from Santillana, also tested positive for shabu use were Rey Torrico, 27, of Cadiz City; Hans Cortez, 30, of Silay City; Osmar Dela Fuente, 28; and Rommel Navarra of Purok Nami-Nami in Brgy. Banago.

Mark Himongala, 25, of Silay City, who was apprehended with them, tested negative for illegal drug use, police records showed.

De la Paz said the two teenagers, both 16, who were rescued by the police at the house of Navarra, where Santillana brought them and induced them to use illegal drugs, also yielded positive for shabu use. They, however, will not be charged anymore as they will be used as witnesses against Santillana, he said.

DepEd Region 6 Director Mildred Garay is asking the Bacolod police to furnish them copy of the drug test result of Santillana so they could act on the matter immediately.

Garay said what Santillana did is a dismissible offense, because he placed the name of the DepEd in a bad light.

The Special Operations Group, Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group, and the Women and Children complaints desk rescued the teenagers on the complaint of the father of one of them, who claimed that Santillana brings his son and his classmates to Barangays Banago and 2 in Bacolod, and persuades them to take drugs and then molests them.

Santillana has denied the allegations, saying that the teenagers, whom he met in a burger store, went with him voluntarily. He also said he was at the alleged drug den to meet with the teenagers to ask for the payment of a debt from one of them.

The teenagers also alleged that Santillana bought drugs for them in exchange for sexual pleasures and would even hire commercial sex workers for them.

Charges for child abuse and other forms of rape are now being readied against Santillana aside from the illegal drug use charges*APN

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