BAGUIO CITY – A traffic enforcer of the Land Transportation Office (LTO, who was on-duty and was in full uniform, was arrested by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the police for possession of 2.5 grams of shabu in a buy-bust operation on Friday, September 11, at Suello Village, Sto. Tomas Proper in Baguio City.
PDEA Regional Director Gil Castro identified the suspect as Ginno Manolo Banta, ,30, of Fatima St. Bayan Park Aurora Hill, Baguio City and a member of the Flying Squad of LTO-Baguio.
Castro said Banta was listed as High Value Target (HVT), who was the subject of surveillance for the past weeks.
There was even some tension when he tried to resist arrest after he was caught selling a packet of shabu to an undercover agent. He only gave up after a back-up team of the arresting agents, armed with assault rifles, showed up.
Castro disclosed that operating units, led by Investigation Agent Seymour Sanchez and Renier Tinong, together with personnel of Station 10 of the Baguio City Police Office, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)- Mountain Province and City Drug Enforcement Unit, conducted the buy-bust operation at 10:30 a.m. September 11.
The operatives confiscated from the suspect a heat-sealed plastic sachets with shabu weighing a total of 2.5 grams, and valued at P17,000; the boodle money, drug paraphernalia, and the suspect’s LTO identification card.
LTO Regional Director Francis Almora said Banta was a job-order employee employed as a driver of the agency.
They were aware that the suspect was apprehended in 2017, and was out on parole.
“When he applied, the chief parole officer recommended that he be given the chance to reform. That is why he was employed. Anyway, his apprehension was not in any way related to his duties and responsibilities in the LTO and the PDEA had been coordinating with us regarding their surveillance of the subject,” Almora said.