ARREST. Dasmariñas City’s Barangay Salitran 1 Chairman Mario Lara Valerio poses (left photo) during the mass oath-taking of more than 4,000 newly-elected barangay leaders, who pledged to organize their respective Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council, at the Santa Rosa City, Laguna sports complex on June 14, 2018. Right photo shows the mug shot of drug suspect Valerio after the City Drug Enforcement Unit arrested him and his wife for possession of illegal drugs during a search warrant operation in his residence on Aug. 11, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Dasma CPS)
DASMARIÑAS CITY, Cavite – Villagers in this city’s Barangay Salitran 1 were surprised when their own barangay captain (village chief), who would have steered his village's local government in eradicating drugs in his jurisdiction, became the subject of a search by local police authorities on Saturday for peddling drugs.
According to the city chief of police, Supt. Alvin Consolacion, law enforcers armed with a search warrant arrested Barangay Salitran 1 chair Mario Lara Valerio, 56 and his wife, Remelin Cantimbuhan Valerio, 39, inside the couple's house on #176 Barangay Salitran 1.
Consolacion said joint operatives of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU), together with his other barangay officials, served the search warrant issued by Judge Agripino G. Morga of the San Pablo City Regional Trial Court.
During the search, the CDEU team recovered eight heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets of suspected “shabu” weighing around 7 grams worth PHP47,000 inside their house.
They now face violation of Republic Act 9165 or the “Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002”.
Valerio was among the more than 4,000 newly-elected village leaders who took their mass-oath-taking on June 14, 2018 during the Calabarzon Barangay Leaders’ Regional Summit at the Sta. Rosa City, Laguna sports complex.
Some villagers said “si Kapitan dapat ang drug buster at ito ang kakaibang pangyayari na siya pang pasimuno sa drugs dito sa barangay (our village chief should have been the drug buster, but this is an odd incident that he turned out to be the drug peddler in this barangay).” (Dennis Abrina/PNA)
