Illegal drugs worth over P1M seized in QC
Some P1.175 million worth of illegal drugs were seized in Quezon City from 18 drug suspects who claimed to be getting their supply from a Chinese national who is already behind bars.
Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar said the seizure was part of a two-week long operation from March 31 to April 11, they called the "Oplan Iceberg."
The operation stemmed from the arrest of drug pushers Willie Gonzales and Rosajun Baculi during a buy-bust operation in front of the Sta. Maria Della Strada Parish along Katipunan Avenue in Barangay Pansol last March 31.
They yielded five grams of shabu worth P25,000, Eleazar said.
Following their arrest, the duo pointed to a supplier named Jocelyn Mationg whom anti-illegal operatives nabbed later the same day around 9:30 p.m. outside a bar in Fairview. Mationg, Eleazar said, was an employee of the Quezon City Hall's Housing Community and Resettlement Department.
Confiscated from her were two big sachets of shabu weighing about 10 grams and amounting to P50,000.
The lady drug supplier later identified her source as Leo Neil Nalundasan. Eleazar said they collared him along with two cohorts in an apartment along Republic Avenue, Brgy. Holy Spirit.
The apartment unit, the suspects admitted, served as their safe house where a detained Chinese national delivers his drug supply. They yielded 120 grams of the one-kilo supply brought to them by lord alleged drug lord. Eleazar said the contraband amounts to P600,000 in street value. Vanne Elaine Terrazola
Mayor Erap reminds devotees: show concern to environment
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada appealed to the thousands of devotees expected to flock the churches in the capital city this Holy Week to be responsible in disposing their trash.
“The observance of Holy Week will be more meaningful if we also show our concern to the environment,” Estrada said. “The simplest act of refraining from dumping your trash anywhere is a big help.”
Holy Week, he added, provides a good occasion for Filipinos, especially the devout Catholics, to observe climate-friendly and trash-free practices for the sake of the environment.
“Being clean is a sign of spiritual purity. Cleanliness, indeed, is next to godliness,” he stressed.
Nevertheless, Estrada tasked the city’s Task Force Manila Cleanup led by Che Borromeo to deploy cleanup crews who will work until Easter Sunday.
"We have assigned around 400 workers for cleanup operations throughout the Holy Week, kumpleto sila, but we appeal to devotees to please be more responsible in dumping their trash,” he said. “Kung mamanata tayo, dapat mamanata din tayong maglinis." Jaimie Rose Aberia
Holdupper dies in shootout, other escapes
A holdupper died while his cohort escaped an armed confrontation with cops in Quezon City early Wednesday morning, April 12.
Operatives of the Quezon City Police District's Special Operations Unit (DSOU) around 2:50 a.m. shot it out with two still unidentified men who tried to rob a gas station along Commonwealth Avenue in Barangay Holy Spirit.
Police said that prior to the shootout, an informant on Monday told them that a group of armed men were planning to rob a convenience store along the highway.
Separate teams were deployed and had since been guarding the vicinity, particularly near the gas station which was robbed sometime in 2015, police said.
On Wednesday morning, police were alarmed about an robbery incident at the said establishment where two men, both armed with guns, declared a heist.
Jonaliza Zamudio, 28, told police she was manning the cashier when one of the suspects opened her window and forcibly took their earnings worth P14,700.
After divesting from the gas station the money, the duo tried to escape onboard a motorcycle when policemen accosted them.
The DSOU said the backrider suddenly pulled out a handgun and shot towards cops, prompting the latter to fire back.
The gunman was killed in the shootout while his driver managed to flee. Vanne Elaine Terrazola