NABBED. Anti-narcotics agents make an accounting of the items seized from suspected drug peddler, Alex Ango Salipada (seated), after a drug buy-bust operation in Barangay Pinaring, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao on Friday (March 22, 2019). Salipada was a former detainee at the Camp Bagong Diwa district jail in Bicutan, Taguig City on charges of multiple murder. (Photo courtesy of PDEA-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY -- A man formerly detained on murder charges was rearrested by anti-narcotics agents during a drug buy-bust operation in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao Friday.
Deputy Director Marlon Santos, officer-in-charge of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), led the sting operation along with personnel of the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion and Sultan Kudarat town police.
Santos identified the arrested suspect as Alex Ango Salipada alias “Datu”, 54, of Barangay Gang, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
“The suspect was previously detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa District Jail, Bicutan, Taguig City for a case of multiple murder,” he said in a statement.
Agents pounced on Salipada after he handed over to a poseur-buyer one heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet of suspected shabu weighing about 50 grams, at past 12 noon along Barangay Crossing Pinaring. The shabu has an estimated market value of PHP340,000.
Also confiscated from the suspect was a bag that contained various identification cards and shabu paraphernalia.
In a phone interview by the Philippines News Agency (PNA) on Saturday, the PDEA-BARMM official said they were informed by the PDEA national office that Salipada was formerly detained at Camp Bagong Diwa but no other information was made available as to why he was out of jail.
He said PDEA-BARMM is continuously coordinating with PDEA-Manila to get more details about Salipada’s case prior to his arrest for drug peddling in Maguindanao.
Cases for violation of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, have been filed against Salipada, who is currently detained at the PDEA-BARMM custodial facility in this city. (PNA)
