STATE anti-narcotics agents arrested Puerto Princesa City Vice Mayor Luis Marcaida III for possessing 30 sachets of suspected shabu crystals during a drug raid on his home early Monday morning.
Police and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency armed with a search warrant found sachets of shabu and firearms at Marcaida’s house on Jacana Road, Barangay Bancao-Bancao, Puerto Princesa City, at 6 a.m.
Agents under Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares also seized a .22 cal. rifle, four .45 cal. pistols, three rifle grenades and a fragmentation grenade.
Alex Marcaida, brother of the arrested vice mayor, denied allegations linking him to illegal drugs.
Alex said he was also puzzled as to the motives of the persons behind his brother’s arrest.
He said the seized firearms were covered by licenses, and that all the rifles were owned by their father.
“I’m calling all supporters to pray for my brother because all the allegations being leveled against the vice mayor are not true,” Alex Marcaida said in a radio interview.
The raid at the vice mayor’s house were witnessed by village chairperson Marilou Gumangan of Bancao-Bancao, barangay chairman Francisco Gabuco of San Pedro, and a media man.
The police had previously tagged the vice mayor as a “high value target” in President Duterte’s war on drugs.
The arrested local executive has a standing electoral protest with the current Mayor Lucilo Bayron before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Bayron was ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman over a nepotism case. He appealed his case to the Court of Appeals and said the Ombudsman’s order could not be enforced without a ruling on the appeal.
Marcaida told newsmen who covered the raid that before the raiding team arrived, several men wearing bonnets entered his house first. He did not elaborate.