A prison guard in Leyte province found himself behind bars after being caught red-handed by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) selling methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu over the weekend.

Undersecretary Arturo Cacdac Jr., PDEA director general, identified the suspect as Edgar Paguio, a prison guard assigned to keep watch at the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Leyte Provincial Prison in Abuyog.

Cacdac said that Paguio was arrested by the PDEA Regional Office 8 agents, under Director Gil Pabilona, after handing over a sachet of shabu to a poseur-buyer in his neighborhood in Barangay Kagbolo, Abuyog, Leyte.

Seized from him were one Glock caliber .40 with one magazine and the P1,000-buy-bust money.

Armed with a search warrant, the operatives then searched Paguio’s house in Barangay Kagbolo and confiscated more plastic sachets containing shabu weighing about 29.7 grams, one caliber 9mm pistol, one Remington M501 rifle with scope, one barrel extension with groove, one silencer, three magazines, one caliber .45 pistol and several drug paraphernalia.

“He [Paguio] was supposed to keep prisoners from committing crimes while in custody, not engage in illegal activities like drug-pushing. Due to the irony of his situation, now he is the one being guarded,” Cacdac said.

Meanwhile, about 42 grams of shabu were seized by the drug-enforcement agents in two separate entrapment operations on December 19 and 20 in Albay province and in Iloilo City, respectively.

Cacdac said that the two suspects, identified as Ireneo Obniala alias Nyong, 26, a resident of Cevallos Street, Barangay Ilawod, Guinobatan, Albay; and Zafiro Mamarion, 34, resident of Ungka 1, Zone 2, Pavia, Iloilo, were arrested in the said operations.

At about 11:00 p.m. on December 19, combined operatives of the drug-enforcement agency under Director Archie Grande and the Guinobatan police station conducted a buy-bust operation in an apartelle at Barangay San Rafael, Guinabatan, Albay, which resulted in the arrest of Obniala.

The suspect was arrested inside a room where the illegal transaction was carried out with an undercover agent who acted as poseur-buyer. Seized from him were five heat-sealed plastic sachets containing suspected shabu weighing about 20 grams, worth P150,000.

Law enforcers in the area are now in pursuit of Obniala’s cohort, Jude Miñas, who was able to elude arrest.

In another agencies buy-bust operation, Mamarion was arrested at about 5:00 p.m. on December 20 by elements of the agency’s Regional Office 6 under lawyer Ronnie Delicana, regional director, at Ungka Terminal, Barangay Ungka, Jaro, Iloilo.

Seized from him were several plastic sachets of suspected shabu weighing 22 grams and a market value of about P187, 000.

Appropriate charges for violation of Section 5 (Sale of Dangerous Drugs), Article 2 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, are now being prepared for filing in court against Obniala and Mamarion.