‘Hot logs' recovered

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources seized 3,970 kilos of “rock-tree” in Bacolod City at about 5 p.m. Thursday, police said.

Members of the ENRO led by engineer Maximo Sillo and Bacolod City Police Office Operations branch chief, Chief Inspector Antonieto Cañete, confiscated the items from a truck driven by Alfredo de la Peña and owned by Marilou Patpat, police records show.

Patpat admitted that their permits have expired but said that the seizure was illegal because an Army officer in civilian clothes approached them first before the ENRO personnel took over.

The DAILY STAR tried to contact Sillo but Jean de la Peña said he was in a meeting with city officials. She added that they have not yet received any documents on the confiscation.

Hadji Tansay of the Bacolod City ENRO said that the items could have been seized only because the owners did not have the necessary documents to support them.

Cañete, meanwhile, said that the Army officer that Patpat was referring to just accompany the ENRO officials and it was they who actually did the confiscation.

The items are now at the Bacolod City Police Office compound.*PP

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2 nabbed in pot session

Two persons were arrested during a pot session in Bacolod City late Thursday, the police said yesterday.

Jessie Nicholas Baylosis, 35, of Purok Masagana, Brgy. Villamonte, and Florante Vergel, 28, of Rizal-Lopez Jaena streets, Brgy. 27, both in Bacolod City , were nabbed by Police Station 4 officers led by Senior Inspector Santiago Rapiz in Brgy. 27, at about 10:15 p.m. Thursday, police records show.

Their companions, a certain “Bebing de Asis”, and Michael Pallan, however, managed to escape during the operation.

Recovered from the suspects were an opened sachet of suspected shabu, six lighters, four strips of aluminum foil, a bamboo clip, empty plastic sachets, a candle, and a small porcelain plate, SPO2 Arela said.

Rapiz said Brgy. 27 has been classified among the areas of concern for drug-related incidents in Bacolod .

Other areas of concern in the city are Barangays 2 and 8 according to Bacolod City Police Office director, Senior Supt. Ronilo Quebrar.

Baylosis and Vergel can face charges for violation of Section 11, 12, and 15 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, Rapiz said.*PP

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AT BREDCO
Workers probed
for qualified theft

The police yesterday said they are now investigating an alleged pilferage of sugar involving workers of a hauling company in Bacolod City Monday.

Police Station 1 investigator, PO2 Nicholas Tancinco, said they are now looking into the reported theft of 81 sacks of raw sugar from the compound of Ocean Transport at the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. at the Bacolod Reclamation Area on January 7.

Billy Fat and Julius Gutierrez, checkers at the company, were invited for questioning by Tancinco over the missing sacks valued at more than P1,000 each and owned by All Asian Counter Trade, the investigator said.

Two witnesses had told them that Fat and Gutierrez, and some unidentified persons, loaded the sacks into a mini-truck Saturday night. The pilferage was discovered by another employee the following morning, Tancinco said.

Fat, 35, and Gutierrez, 36, however, denied involvement in the theft, saying they were not in the area at that time and were with their families.

Fat's father, Tony, said his son was watching television at their house at the time.

The two have also claimed that they were mauled by other inmates when they were locked up at Police Station 1. They gave the names of four detainees in a blotter report.

Police Station 1 commander, Chief Inspector Noel Manaay, however, said, they were never put in the lock-up cell because they had not been charged yet, and had just been invited for questioning.

Fat and Gutierrez may have learned the names of the detainees as they were allowed to sit near the cell, Manaay said.

Ariel Layson, 20, the security guard on duty at the time told the police that Fat had told him to “go out for a while” because they “will take out some sugar.”

“He told me they will take care of me,” Layson said of the instruction from Fat for him to leave his post.

Tancinco said this could only have meant that Fat was promising Layson a part of the proceeds of the pilfered sugar.

If Layson will cooperate with the investigation, he can be used as a star witness later, Tancinco said.

He added that the modus could have been going on for a while but have continued unreported because of possible connivance with those who knew of the company system.

Manaay said the hauling company will decide whether to file charges against Fat and Gutierrez.*PP

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