By FELIPE V. CELINO

ROXAS City – A politician and a money lender are behind the proliferation of illegal drugs in Capiz, said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 6 (PDEA).

Regional Director Paul Ledesma has, however, refused to identify the politician and the money lender so as not to jeopardize his agency’s efforts to bring them down.

Ledesma also said the recapture of top Capiz illegal drug suspect Sulpicio Marcelino confirmed that the drug trafficking problem in Roxas City and Capiz is serious.

He considered Marcelino a “high-risk detainee.”

“This money lender’s business even reaches the Hall of Justice and the city hall,” Ledesma said.

The money lender is also into illegal gambling, he revealed.

Ledesma also said big-time illegal drug personalities in Capiz have politicians as protectors.

He urged the media to help PDEA curb the proliferation of illegal drugs.

PDEA pulled out its agents in Capiz a few years ago because they were outnumbered by drug traffickers, said Ledesma.

“The fight against the illegal drug menace should involve the community as well, not just the PDEA or the police,” Ledesma stressed.

In another development, Ledesma said Dr. Elfego Londres could be charged with obstruction of justice for advising the police to re-confine drug suspect Dino Bermejo to the hospital.

Ledesma said Bermejo is simply trying to avoid detention at the Roxas City police station jail.

Londres lay also be charged before the Professional Regulation Commission, said Ledesma.

Supt. Kasmir Disomangcop, Roxas City police chief, said Bermejo was recently discharged from the Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital after almost a week of confinement due to alleged stress.

But Londres, a private physician, issued a medical certificate on Wednesday advising the police to bring Bermejo back to the hospital for “proper treatment.”

PO2 Manuel Bansale Jr. said Londres went to the police station and asked that Bermejo be temporarily taken out of detention but did not conduct a physical checkup on the suspect.

The 21-year-old Bermejo of Brgy. Baybay here was nabbed in a buy-bust operation on October 14 on McKinley Street.

Recovered from him were two plastic sachets of what the police suspected to be shabu./PN