Pedicab driver, companion fall in Bacolod buy-bust operation, P455,600 worth of ‘shabu’ seized


BACOLOD CITY -- About 67 grams of suspected shabu worth P455,600 was seized from two drug peddlers, including a pedicab driver, during a buy-bust operation at Purok Neptune, Barangay Singcang-Airport here on Monday.

Police arrested the subject identified as Edwin Alvarez, 55, and his alleged cohort, Ronnel Dayanan, 37, a pedicab driver. Both are residents of Barangay Singcang-Airport.

Police Lt. Joeven Mogato, head of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU), said Alvarez is considered a high value individual, while Dayanan a street level individual.

Mogato said that based on their monitoring, the illegal drugs were sourced out outside Negros Occidental through San Carlos City.

Alvarez was arrested for a drug offense in 2018 but was released in December 2021, after his case was dismissed when the police officer who handled the case was killed last year, according to Mogato.

Both Alvarez and Dayanan are detained at Police Station 8.

Brig. Gen. Flynn Dongbo, director of Police Regional Office (PRO)-Western Visayas, lauded the operatives for their efforts, and urged them to continue their effort in the campaign against illegal drugs.

It is our dream to make every community, peaceful, orderly and drug-free, Dongbo said.

Meanwhile, six persons were also arrested in separate buy-bust operations here over the weekend, with the police confiscating P150,000 worth of suspected shabu.