CCTV ‘disproves’ drug suspect’s claim

SHORTLY before 8:00 a.m. of Oct. 2, 2018, Romel Fernandez brought his Grade 6 daughter to school at Barangay Cansilayan, Pototan, Iloilo.

Several meters from the school entrance, Fernandez said he was surprised that police officers circled and kicked his leg.

Authorities also put something inside his pocket, he further alleged.

It turned out that the “things” stuffed inside his pocket were money and five sachets of suspected shabu.

“Damo nakakita sang gindumog nila ko kag ginbutangan sa bulsa ko,” he added.

(Many saw when they wrestled me and put something in my pocket.)

Reports indicated that the buy-bust operation against Fernandez was jointly carried out by members of Pototan Police Station and the Iloilo Police Provincial Office-Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (IPPO-PDEU).

Police recovered five sachets of suspected shabu and P1,000 cash from the suspect.

Despite professing his innocence, the 47-year old Fernandez knew that the odds are against him since he was a Tokhang surrenderer.

He was also arrested in an anti-narcotics raid at his house in Nanga village on December 2016. He is out on bail.

Chief Inspector Ronnie Brillo, Pototan police chief, said that Fernandez’s family went to the police station on the day of his arrest.

They claimed that he just dropped his daughter to school when the arrest happened.

The daughter appeared at the police station to allegedly manifest her father’s innocence claiming she saw what happened.

She was about to buy her pad paper when her father was arrested.

“But they forgot that there is a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera in the barangay. We made them view the CCTV wherein the buy-bust happened some 100 meters from where the daughter was,” Brillo said.

After viewing the CCTV, the family allegedly left without a word.

At one point, Brillo admitted to have told Fernandez’s wife about teaching her daughter to lie.

While records from the local police indicated that the suspect is a street level pusher, he was considered a high-value target on another list having been arrested before on drug charges.

Brillo said Fernandez was also a suspected robber more than a decade ago.

“But he shifted to the illegal drug trade maybe thinking that it was more lucrative,” he added.

Fernandez laid low after his arrest in 2016 but was again monitored to have gone back to drug trading, Brillo said.

The suspect is now detained and will be charged for violation of Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002).

SOURCE: The Daily Guardian

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