Another drug offender released through the Supreme Court-mandated plea bargaining framework was rearrested for drug charges in Tagbilaran City.

Nilo Redondo, 39, who was released earlier in April after entering into a plea bargaining agreement was collared along with his cousin Renmark Redondo, 21, through a drug buy-bust operation in Barangay Booy on Monday.

The arresting officers from the Tagbilaran City Police Station allegedly found 12 sachets containing shabu with an estimated weight of 10 grams in the cousins’ possession. The seized drugs were estimated to be worth P68,000 based on the value set by the Dangerous Drugs Board.

Redondo admitted that the seized packets of shabu were theirs but did not name their source.

Both men were detained at the Tagbilaran City Police Station lock-up facility while authorities prepared to file charges against them for sale and possession of illegal drugs.

Based on data from the Bohol District Jail and the Tagbilaran City Jail, two of the largest jails among five detention centers in the province, 563 drug offenders were released from both facilities after they entered into plea bargaining deals from January to August.

The figure is 31 percent higher than the number of arrested drug suspects across Bohol in the same period at 427 individuals based on data from the BPPO.

Plea deals are being offered nationwide to qualified drug suspects by letting them plead guilty to lesser offenses.

The plea bargaining framework was adopted by the SC in 2018 right in the middle of the national government’s anti-drug drive and was seen to decongest jails and ease backlog in courts handling drug cases. (wm)