Leading the “haul” of police arrests is son of ex-top police brass

Senior Police Supt. Constantino Paul Barot, Jr., provincial director of the Philippine National Police Bohol Police Office, announced yesterday a “substantial haul of police arrests’ as a police dragnet was set in motion to capture known shady characters involved in drug deals and robberies. Although the drug busts were not as high profile as the previous ones where the quantity of the prohibited items seized was beyond the bailalable range, the haul, this time seemed insignificant by normal standards in drug operations. The only thing significant about the latest police feat was that one of those arrested is a son of a former top police officer, ex- police superintendent Paul Bernadas, one-time asst. Bohol provincial director of the Bohol PNP. His son Paul,Jr. was busted in a raid along Espuelas Extention last Friday where one piece of transparent sachet believed to have contained the prohibited substance known as shabu was seized in his possession during a buy-bust.

He was with two companions identified as Haldene Karaan y Abas, 41 of Hontanosas Extention, this city, and Alberto Dangoy y Tagotongan, 28 and a resident of Espuelas Ext., also of this city. Also confiscated in their possession were the marked money amounting to P1,000, one unit SYM motorcycle and other drug paraphernalia. Only four days earlier, another buy bust operation led by the same team leading the arrest of the Bernadas gang resulted in the apprehension of one Malic Marohom Cadar, a resident of M. Parras Extension, this city. Seized in his possession was two pieces of small transparent sachet and one piece medium size transparent sachet and marked money worth P500.00. A Yamaha motorcycle was also found in his possession along with other drug paraphernalia. The two drug operations were conducted by the Provincial Public Safety Company/SWAT led by PSupt. Nicomedes Pana Olaivar.

2 ROB SUSPECTS FALL

The week that was also saw the arrest of two robbery suspects in Balilihan town. Led by a CIDG team of this city in coordination with the local police unit led by Police Inspector Arsenio Maglente, the combined posse’ bagged two suspects identified as Ricardo Jaectin Tagsa, 34, married and Steven Ortega Pegad, 28, single, and said to be a security guard of the Al Nino Security Agency. Both are residents of Hagbuya, Catigbian town. A police report identified Pegad as security guard of Al Nino Security Agency whose owner is retired General Alberto Olario. The same retired general was caught in a heated verbal exchange with Carmen Mayor Che Toribio de los Reyes after the lady mayor arrested two of the guards of the agency who were found at the time of their arrest to have no license of their firearms. The two guards have since presented their respective licenses but not until they were charged before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. The charges were subsequently dismissed after the presentation of the licenses of the questioned firearms.

In the latest caper involving Al Nino, retired General Olario went on air last week to clarify that the guard linked to a robbery in Balilihan was only a “reliever” and therefore not a regular detail. He said it was a common practice among security agencies to accept” moonlighting” guards to tie them up with the rising cost of commodities. The reliever guard who was promptly relieved of his guard duties at Al Nino after his robbery connection. He was linked with the stick up involving collections of the hardware store Herbert Malmis. Although there was no mention in the police report of the amount involved, information filtering around the robbery incident indicated that it was more than P100,000. The two suspects were positively identified in a police line up by the victims identified as Zenith Nina Boncales, HR head, Charise Ardino, office manager and Flaviano Bermoy, driver of the Izusu Elf that they boarded while having a transaction in the town proper of Balilihan.

One of the suspects, Pegad, took off his bonnet to announce the hold-up leading the victims to identify him positively. A third suspect identified as Carmelo Calacat of barangay, Cogon, Balilihan, was the object of police operations that until now he is still at large. The suspects were traced down in barangay Hagbuaya in Catigbian by the joint police team on the strength of the cell phone number of one of the suspects. The cell phone number was traced to a store in Balilihan where the suspect bought a load. A police call to the cell phone number lead them to their whereabouts in Hagbuaya.