GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Anti-drug and police operatives arrested over the weekend a fugitive barangay chair in Kiamba town, Sarangani Province who was listed as a “high-value drug personality.”
Chief Supt. Eliseo Rasco, regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-12, said Monday suspect Latip Mingkat, chairman of Barangay Tambilil in Kiamba, was nabbed at his home in village proper at around 4:15 p.m. Saturday.
He said Mingkat was arrested by virtue of a warrant issued by Judge Rebecca G. Dardo-Seredrica of the Regional Trial Court Branch 46 in Alabel, Sarangani for possession of illegal drugs docketed under criminal case number 00834-18.
The arrest warrant was served by elements from the Sarangani Police’s Intelligence Branch, provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, Provincial Mobile Force Company, 1204th Company of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion, Kiamba municipal police station and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Region 12.
“This is the result of joint surveillance and intelligence operations against the suspect,” Rasco said.
The police official said Mingkat, who assumed as chair of Barangay Tambilil last July 1, eluded arrest during a search operation by the PDEA-12 and Sarangani police at his residence last July 5.
He said the search resulted in the recovery of a gram of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu worth PHP7,000.
A report from the PDEA-12 said Mingkat was involved in the illegal drug trade in the area included in the priority target list of the Sarangani police and the agency’s watchlist.
Mingkat took his oath and assumed as the newly-elected chair of Barangay Tambilil despite losing the final vote count in the May 14 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
The top vote-getter, reelectionist chair Reynardo Amador, was killed in an ambush in front of his home two weeks before the polls.
Amador’s family failed to field a substitute candidate, resulting in the proclamation of Mingkat as winner in the election. (PNA)
