The new Talisay drug case

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Managing Editor ANTONIETA B. LOPEZ Business Editor ODETTE MONTELIBANO Desk Editor MARY ANN BARCELONA Advertising Coordinator RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete

ANDRES R. LEONARDIA Managing Director

Negrenses are currently being treated to a very intriguing piece of news whose development sounds like the plot of a thriller movie. How it is going to end is, just as in the films, your guess or ours.

We have this story of how a team from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency had arrested an official of Talisay City in the province, the head of its General Services Office, no less, and allegedly found him in possession of a substance believed to be the prohibited drug, shabu. Apprehended with the official, identified as Archibald Tuvilla, was a casual employee of the city, named Sanel Arcenas.

The arresting team from the PDEA was led by its chief, Inspector Joemarie Occeño, who disclosed that his men had been monitoring the activities of Tuvilla and had allegedly seen his vehicle frequenting an area in Bacolod City where shabu is reportedly sold. On Friday night, Occeño and his men trailed Tuvilla's vehicle and reportedly intercepted it on the highway, where they seized the suspected shabu.

But the story took a strange twist the next day, after Tuvilla and his companion had been detained. Tuvilla, claiming that he had been "framed" by the PDEA, told the media that the arresting officers had demanded money from him so he would not be charged. He also claimed to have witnesses in all the points where he said he and Occeño had stopped or passed, all ready to testify on his behalf.

In addition to that, several members of the Barangay association, or Liga ng mga Barangay, signed a statement of condemnation against his accusers, vouching for his character, calling him "an upright city official", and "a victim of human rights violation". Political motives were, naturally, also hinted. To Occeña's credit, however, some Liga members also declared that the views of the others were their own, and not a collective stand.

So who is to be believed in this story? It is to be noted that Tuvilla is not the first official of Talisay to be linked to drugs. The city's Treasurer had also been arrested months before, right in his office at city hall. In the new case, however, the accused apparently has many defenders ready to help him with their statements. Can Occeña, therefore, invoke Abraham Lincoln's principle about the awearing of 10,000 angels being of no avail if one is wrong?*