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John Unson - Philstar.com
March 19, 2026 | 6:34pm
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Three longtime shabu dealers were arrested one after another in separate police entrapment operations in this city on Tuesday, March 17, with the help of their own relatives and leaders of the local Islamic and Christian religious groups.
The suspects, Jonard Lopez Valdevieso, Steve Ginta Kali and Kominie Ombol Omar, all known for peddling marijuana supplied by remnants of the defunct Dawlah Islamiya terror group, are now locked in different police detention facilities in Cotabato City.
Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Thursday that the three shabu peddlers shall be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
De Guzman said Moro community leaders, Mayor Bruce Matabalao, who is presiding chairperson of the multi-sector Cotabato City Peace and Order Council, and relatives of the three suspects together helped officials of PRO-BAR units in the city plot the entrapment operations that resulted in their arrest.
The first to fall in Tuesday’s anti-narcotics operations is Valdevieso, arrested after selling shabu to policemen, led by Capt. Anuar Mambatao, and anti-narcotics operatives under Col. Jibin Bongcayao, director of the Cotabato City Police Office, during a tradeoff in Purok Pascual in Mother Barangay Rosary Heights.
Kali was immediately detained by anti-narcotics agents under Bongcayao and his subordinate, Lt. Patricia Bueno of the City Police Drug Enforcement Unit, after they have procured shabu from him in Purok Matilak in Lugay-lugay area in Barangay Bagua 1.
Omar was entrapped late Tuesday by a police team led by Capt. Al-Grahammad Pompong and Bongcayao.
He was immediately frisked and cuffed by policemen, disguised as drug dependents, after turning over to them his illegal merchandise in exchange for money at one spot in Purok Macacua in Barangay Poblacion 5.
De Guzman said the entrapment operations that resulted in the arrest of Valdevieso, Kali and Omar were planned after their relatives and members of the Islamic and Christian religious groups in Cotabato City reported to community leaders and to Mr. Matabalao their trafficking of narcotics in barangays around.
Senior officials of intelligence units under the Army’s 6th Infantry Division confirmed to reporters on Thursday that Valdevieso, Kali and Omar are in their lists of shabu peddlers selling marijuana occasionally supplied to them by remaining members of the now virtually non-functional Dawlah Islamiya who have not yet availed of the division’s reconciliation program for violent religious extremists.
