by : Emely Fama

CAMP BADO DANGWA, Benguet— A shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) dealer was nabbed by elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Cordillera Administrative Region (PDEA-CAR).

Chief Inspector Edgar Apalla, PDEA-CAR officer in charge identified the suspect as Macario Ola Balagtas, 42, married, elementary school graduate and vegetable / chicken dung porter, a native of Naujan, Oriental Mindoro presently residing at Looban, Balintawak, Quezon City, Metro Manila.

Apalla said Balagtas usually delivers shabu to vegetable truck drivers, often hitching a ride from Manila to personally deliver the illegal drug to vegetable traders in La Trinidad, Benguet.

Patrons, who usually prefer buying their shabu supply from him since he offers the illegal drug at a producer’s price or about 50% cheaper.

He was nabbed , during a buy-bust operation at around 6:35 early in the evening last Friday, July 9, 2010, near the vegetable trading post at Puguis, La Trinidad, Benguet.

Balagtas was apprehended after he sold sachets of shabu to an agent of the Benguet Special Enforcement Team (SET) of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) – Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), who posed as buyer. Another sachet of shabu was found in Balagtas’ possession when the seizing anti-narcotics officer frisked him later.

The three sachets of shabu confiscated from Balagtas have a total weight of 0.29 gram, estimated to cost four thousand pesos in the streets in the Cordillera Region.

According to Apalla, the buy-bust money composed of a genuine five-hundred-peso bill and two mock-ups of one-thousand-peso bill; the 1200 Nokia cellular phone with Smart Buddy SIM card, used by Balagtas for the illegal drug deal; and his drug money, amounting to three thousand pesos in different denominations, were confiscated as additional pieces of evidence against him.

Investigation revealed that Balagtas had already vended the greater volume of his (shabu) items to customers in Baguio City earlier that day, last July 9.

Cases for violations of Section 5 (Sale of Dangerous Drugs) and Section 11 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs) of Republic Act 9165 (The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) were filed today, July 12, 2010, against Balagtas, before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Benguet, under Docket Numbers I-05-INQ-10G-717 to 718; whereas, the drug evidence were already submitted to the Philippine National Police Regional Crime Laboratory Office – Cordillera last July 9. Similarly, the accused was taken in custody by the Benguet Provincial Jail last July 10, as per the order of the Inquest Prosecutor; while the non-drug pieces of evidence remain with the PDEA – CAR Benguet SET’s Evidence Custodian. –**emely fama/PDEA-CAR