Dumaguete police chief, Supt. James Goforth, said yesterday that the illegal drugs trade in the city is a complicated problem that involves high profile personalities.

He said one main source of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, is the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa, Metro Manila, and the police are now working on information from various sources, like text messages from “drug pushers” who were either killed or injured in past months.

The latest to fall in the turf war between two big groups allegedly peddling illegal drugs in the city, was Rolando Cahilo Bendijo, a make-up artist, who was shot dead Wednesday afternoon in Barangay Bajumpandan, Dumaguete.

Bendijo, a gay also known as Lando, appeared to be involved in the sale of illegal drugs and was believed to be in a transaction when he was killed in broad daylight on his way home to Bacong, police investigation showed.

Goforth said the victim must have been tailed by one of his associates to Combado, Bacong, after sending money at about 11 a.m.He was shot with a .45 caliber hand gun at about 1 p.m, in Purok Kanangkaan, Bajumpandan by an unidentified person on a motorcycle who then fled to Isugan, Bacong.

He said text messages of high intelligence value were retrieved from the four mobile phones of Bendijo, and confirmed suspicions of the involvement of high profile personalities, he added.

Goforth admitted that, because of the complex network of the illegal drugs ring in Dumaguete and other parts of Negros Oriental, it is difficult for the police to pin down the alleged financiers, usually the distributors and dealers were either killed, or whose lives were threatened for deals gone bad.

Bendijo’s death was linked to the illegal drugs trade as text messages from his phones revealed he was dealing with shabu with a Tagalog-speaking person, whose identity Goforth did not disclose.

Bendijo recently remitted “shabu sales” through a money courier, as shown by a receipt recovered at the crime scene. He was believed to have been “taken out” for non-remittance of sales from the illegal drugs, Goforth said.

Transactions made by Bendijo were apparently not small-time, based on the quantities of shabu mentioned in the text messages, he added.

Bendijo’s death was the first reported since the time a man suspected to also be dealing with illegal drugs was shot at E.J. Blanco Road Extension in Dumaguete about 40 days ago.

Goforth said the police are doing their best on the illegal drugs problem and that he anticipates more shooting incidents now that rival groups are starting to go after others for “botched deals.”*JFP/JG

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