The relentless war on illegal drugs in Bohol resulted in more than 3,079.462 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride known as “shabu” with an estimated street value of P36,377,651.00 were reported seized by the Bohol Police Provincial Office (BPPO) since August, 2013.
Since the assumption of office of Philippine National Police, Police Provincial Director Dennis Palo Agustin, the anti – drug operations conducted by the police together with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Responding to public outcry on the growing menace of illegal drugs, the police launched 959 drug operations in a span of three years nabbing 1,104 drug personalities.
Among those arrested were Corsino Torregosa Bautista, Elly Job Cabahug, Ramel “Ete” Tradio and Romulo Cano alias Bono.
The war on drugs did not spare the police from drug related violence when no less than the Chief of Police of the Ubay and Danao Police Stations were waylaid, shot and killed by illegal drug operators.
Police Chief Inspector George Cana of the Ubay Police was mercilessly gunned down in Barangay Balintawak, Talibon while Senior Police Officer 1 (SPO1) Roel Romagos Officer in Charge of the Danao Police Station was killed in Barangay Sta. Fe, Danao.
A rookie police officer, Police Officer 1 (PO1) June Michael Ejoc was killed when they tried to gain entrance into a suspected drug den in Barangay Poblacion 1 in Tagbilaran City.
The police, using intelligence sources and the cooperation of the community tracked down the cop killers who refused to surrender and engage law enforcers in a shoot-out.
The killers of Cana led by a dismissed police officer were killed in a gun battle with the police at the Playa Beach Resort in Barangay San Pedro, Bien Unido.
The killers were identified as PO1 Owen Rosales and 5 of his companions while the assassin of Ejoc, tagged as a drug dealer, Artemio Tare, Jr. was shot and killed in a shoot-out at a police check point in Guindulman.
A year after Agustin assumed as Police Director, the police nabbed 389 suspected drug dealers and took possession of P19,359,103 worth of shabu.
In 2015 a more intensified police raids netted 536 drug suspects yielding P11,327,646 worth of shabu.
The 1st quarter of 2016 resulted in the arrests of 116 drug suspects in possession of P3,834,460 capped by the arrest of Eddie Vano, a level 1 drug personality at his hide-out in Barangay Fatima, Carmen with shabu valued at P994,000.00.
The unrelenting crusade of the BPPO to stamp out the deadly illegal drug trade and rampant use of shabu was deemed a success after topping the anti-drug war in Central Visayas.
The Provinical Intelligence Branch – Special Operations Group under PSupt. Jeffrey Caballes, Provincial Safety Company – Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) headed by PSupt. Nicomedes Olaivar Jr. and the Bohol Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) under PChief Inspector Teodoro Santops, Jr. has been in the forefront in the various police operations against illegal drugs (Chito M. Visarra)