CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development-10 (DSWD-10) has confirmed that one of the two women arrested for illegal drugs during separate raids inside their homes in Sitio Balongis, Barangay Balulang, this city, on Wednesday (Sept. 4) is a beneficiary of the agency’s conditional cash transfer program.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-10 (PDEA-10) identified the suspects as Jalilah Macapanton, 35, who also goes by the names Jalilah Tangco, and Pidao Itomama, and Divina Sumagayan, alias Diding, 53.
In her Bureau of Internal Revenue-issued taxpayer’s identification card, she used the surname Tangco, and Macapanton on her DSWD-10’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) card. In the search warrant, she was identified as Itomama.
Macapanton was said to be a businesswoman, although it was not immediately known how she became a 4Ps beneficiary despite her income. Sumagayan was reported to be engaged in lending.
According to PDEA-10 regional director Wilkins Villanueva, operatives were able to confiscate from Macapanton close to 25 grams of alleged shabu, placed inside 17 plastic sachets, with an estimated street value of P170,000.
Taken from Sumagayan were 8 plastic sachets of suspected shabu, estimated to be worth P30,000.
In an interview, Villanueva said both the suspects have their customers come to their residents only to buy.
“They don’t have a drug den, they are just distributors,” he said.
Villanueva said they had put Macapanton under surveillance for a few months but had to stop their monitoring for a while after she went to Marawi City supposedly to support a candidate during last May’s elections.
He said the suspects’ sources of illegal drugs come from Marawi and its nearby towns.
DSWD-10’s 4Ps program spokesperson Oliver Inodeo said they are saddened by the report that one of their recipients was arrested for illegal drugs, but added they have been advising the program’s beneficiaries not to engage in illicit activities through the department’s family development sessions.
“It is unfortunate that this happened, but at the same this will serve as a warning to 4Ps members that there will be consequences if they are involved in these illegal activities,” Inodeo said.
“It has always been part of our campaign to remind our beneficiaries to stay away from these acts as we are even encouraging active citizenship to our members,” he added.
Inodeo said the cash grant will be transferred to Macapanton’s eldest child as the beneficiary, as the suspect can no longer avail of the grant due to her alleged involvement in the selling of illegal drugs. (davaotoday.com)
