ILLEGAL drugs are rampant in 51 villages in the province of South Cotabato, according to Katryn Gaye Abad, information officer of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 12 (Soccsksargen).

Abad said out of the 199 villages in the 10 municipalities and lone city of South Cotabato about 140 have been declared as drug-cleared areas.

Naravy Duquiatan, regional director of PDEA-Region 12, in an interview said the assessment is ongoing.

“The PDEA is conducting the validation of the areas as drugcleared based on new guidelines set by our national head office under drug-clearing program parameters,” Duquiatan added.

In Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, 17 persons were arrested, while two others managed to escape the raid on a suspected drug den at Purok 1 in the city’s Barangay 6 on Saturday morning.

Authorities identified those arrested as Ricardo Garcia, Ramil de la Cruz, Roger Abordo, Richard Garcia, Joebel Barientos, Jan Michael Sambrano, Marlon Villaflor, Ramil Martinez, Bobby Infante, Gilbert Magaso, Jonah Lirazan, Adrian Tingson, Reynaldo Atillaga, Romer Buscado, Jeoford Juguan, Roland Jestupa and Johnny Suico.

Those who escaped were identified as George Ordonia and Reggie Matos.

According to the Kabankalan City police, the raid was conducted by anti-drug operatives from PDEA Negros Occidental and PDEA Guimaras after they received information that Garcia, Ordonia and Matos were maintaining drug dens in the area.

A total of 25 sachets of suspected shabu weighing 15 grams and valued at P102,000 were seized in the raid.

In Tawi-Tawi in Southern Mindanao, troops killed two alleged drug traffickers and a woman in a gun battle on Sunday,

police said.

Girang Lipae and his son, Basil, and a still unidentified woman clashed with police commandos and soldiers in the gang’s hideout in the coastal village of Sipangkot in Sitangkai town.

The police were trying to serve arrest warrants to both men, wanted for a string of murder charges and drug trafficking, when they came under fire from the gang’s hideout, sparking a firefight that killed all three suspects.

The Philippine National Police chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, lauded all those involved in the “intensified intelligence-driven operation,” saying the two slain men were notorious and wanted by authorities for their crimes.

He said security forces recovered two rifles and a pistol, including ammunition, from the gang’s hideout.

“Further investigation revealed that the subject personalities were notorious in the province and involved in facilitating the entry of illegal drugs from Sabah in Malaysia to Tawi-Tawi. There were reports that subject persons also threatened and forcibly grabbed the houses and harvested seaweeds and other marine goods of their neighbors,” Eleazar added, citing police reports.

A buy-bust in Cagayan de Oro City led to the arrest of a high-value target (HVT) who reportedly sells shabu during a buy-bust entrapment in the coastal village of Bonbon in the city, police said on Sunday.

Col. Henry Dampal, city chief of police, identified the suspect as Mark Ranullo, 37, married and a resident of Zone 5, Bonbon.

Dampal said Ranullo, an employee who holds a regular position with the regional office of the Department of Public Works and Highways, has been an object of surveillance as among those listed as HVT suspects.

JERRY ALDAW, EUGENE ADIONG, AL JACINTO

AND CRIS DIAZ