A policeman was arrested by operatives of the City Police Special Operations Task Group when they allegedly caught him in a drug den at Lopez Jaena Street in Brgy. 20, Bacolod City, during a buy-bust operation at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Supt. Jefferson Descallar, commander of the SOG, said yesterday that Police Officer 3 Leri Lumawag, 37, of Candoni in Negros Occidental, was nabbed for visiting a drug den.

Descallar said the operatives did not recover any illegal drugs from Lumawag, and that he pretended to be sleeping when the raiding team arrived.

The subject of the buy-bust, Rogelio Maalat, 42, of Hinigaran town in Negros Occidental, was apprehended after he handed to a police poseur-buyer, a small heat-sealed plastic sachet of suspected shabu in exchange for P300, Descallar said. Illegal drugs paraphernalia were also recovered from Maalat, he added.

However, three others evaded arrest, but one of them was identified by an informant, Descallar said.

Maalat said he was in the house of his friend whom he identified only as “Max” to get the pants he bought from him, that he would use as uniform as a crew of a hotel in Bacolod.

He claimed the recoveries were only planted by the police.

Lumawag is assigned as warrant and subpoena police non-commissioned officer of the Candoni Police Station, its officer-in-charge, Senior Insp. Jayson Mangilimutan, told the DAILY STAR yesterday.

Mangilimutan said Lumawag went to Bacolod on Wednesday to attend a conference for warrant and subpoena officers but had not returned to the Candoni Police. His colleagues thought Lumawag had missed a bus, or had slept at his house in Hinigaran, he added.

Mangilimutan also said he is not tolerating the act and the Candoni Police will conduct its investigation on the case. He had been the station OIC for only nine months, and said he had not received complaints against Lumawag.

He also said the Bacolod City Police Office had coordinated with him about the arrest of Lumawag. The Candoni Police will refer to the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office the filing of administrative charges against Lumawag, Mangilimutan also said.

Lumawag, meanwhile, refused to comment on the case.

Descallar said Maalat and Lumawag were subjected to drug tests yesterday, and charges for violation of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, are being readied against them. *SGG

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