DRUG INVENTORY. Police investigators during the inventory of the suspected shabu and drug paraphernalia inside the rented apartment of PO1 Joy Celedonio on Friday night. (March 9, 2018)
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — A policeman implicated in illegal drug pushing was arrested in a “shabu” session with two other civilian suspects here Friday night.
Police Officer 1 Joy Celedonio of the City Police’s Station 1 was arrested along with Jaymar Sto. Niño and Shaolin Magallanes, at about 9:20 p.m. in his rented apartment in Barangay Mandaragat.
A press statement released by the Police Insp. Pearl Lamban-Marzo said they were arrested in an operation launched by the City Police Station 1, led by its head, Chief Insp. Mark Allen Palacio.
Confiscated from Celedonio and the two suspects were several illegal drug paraphernalia and a sachet of suspected “shabu” weighing one gram.
Celedonio was one of 38 police officers who underwent a surprise drug test on March 4 ordered by Puerto Princesa Police director, Senior Supt. Ronnie Francis Cariaga.
Cariaga ordered the drug test after Celedonio, and two other police officers, PO1s Bryan Jay Miday and Jerome Lee, were implicated by suspected drug pusher Nathalie Chua, alias Nathalie Niño Velez and Lea, as the source of the shabu supply she was peddling in Puerto Princesa.
“He and another police officer were positively identified by Nathalie Niño Velez, who was with (them) in a shabu session before the police arrived to arrest her,” Cariaga said in a statement.
Velez, a 20-year-old single mother, and resident of Abanico Road, Barangay San Pedro, was arrested in a drug buy-bust operation in Pardeco, Barangay Bancao-Bancao on March 4.
She said a recorded investigation released to the local press showed that the supply she was selling was from Celedonio, who was her boyfriend.
In an earlier interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Cariaga said Celedonio and Miday tested positive for shabu, while Lee was found without any trace of illegal substance.
“Immediately, when the information reached me, I ordered the Crime Laboratory to do surprise drug test, and among the three, two indicated having the drug substance in their test samples,” he said.
He said the arrest of Celedonio and the investigation of Miday and Lee are part of the internal cleansing of the police force in Puerto Princesa.
“I am warning them that our higher officials are not joking about the commitment to clean the PNP of drugs. Anyone who will be caught will face the law against illegal drugs,” he said. (PNA)