More than P238,000 worth of suspected shabu were recovered from two alleged suppliers during a buy-bust operation conducted by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency near the Central Market in Bacolod City at about 4 p.m. yesterday.

Salic Manabilang, 43, alias Michael Manabilang of Marawi, and Noel Odtohan, 51, alias Arib, of Pulupandan, Negros Occidental, were arrested by the PDEA agents and elements of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office.

Recovered from the suspects were two big plastic sachets of suspected shabu and two small plastic sachets of the same substance weighing more than 28 grams, P500 in marked money, and several expired police identification cards.

Manabilang said he came to Bacolod with a friend three days ago but his companion returned to Mindanao yesterday. He claimed that it was his companion who brought in the illegal substance to Bacolod, and that he only carried his bag and did not know what it contained.

He added that he has been living in Cebu since 1965.

Acting PDEA regional director Ronnie Delicana said they suspect that Manabilang and Odtohan are suppliers who are responsible for bringing in illegal drugs to Bacolod from Mindanao.

The fact that they were able to recover a substantial volume of illegal substance from them shows that they are no ordinary suppliers, he said.

Delicana said the big plastic sachets of suspected shabu weigh more than 28 grams and the street value of 1 gram of shabu is about P8,500.

He said Manabilang must have pretended to be a policeman since they recovered several fake ID’s of the Philippine National Police from him.

One of the ID’s recovered belong to Manabilang’s wife, Norma, indicating that she is a member of the Police Regional Office 7. All the ID’s, recovered, however, had expired in 2010 yet.

Delicana said charges for violation of R.A. 9165 have been filed against the suspects before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office yesterday, while the illegal substance was brought to the PDEA Regional Office in Iloilo City for laboratory examination.*CGS

back to top