By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – A most wanted person, who is included in the target list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-6 and Negros Occidental was arrested for a drug offense at Sitio Sibucao, Barangay Banago here last Monday.
Police identified the suspect as Joejan Villar, 34, of the said village.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Joeffer Cabural, head of City Intelligence Unit (CIU), said that Villar is also top 8 in the drugs watchlist the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and most wanted person of Police Station 3.
Cabural said CIU operatives, along with other units served an arrest warrant for violation of Section 5 (sale of dangerous drugs) of Republic Act 9165 or Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, against Villar.
The arrest warrant with no bail recommended was issued by Judge Amcel Mercader of Regional Trial Court Branch 48 here on Aug. 1, 2021.
However, Villar resisted by allegedly shooting one of the police operatives. Fortunately, the policeman was not hit, Cabural said.
A brief chase then followed until Villar hid in one of the houses in the village. Villar ordered the house owner to leave, while police negotiated with him to surrender.
After 10 minutes, Villar went out of the house and turned himself in to the police, Cabural said.
Authorities recovered from him a .45 caliber loaded with a magazine with two live ammunition.
The operation was also in coordination with Police Station 3, Regional Intelligence Division, City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU), and Philippine National Police (PNP) Drug Enforcement Group.
Cabural said that it took them six months to monitor Villar, as they had difficulty penetrating the area because he is allegedly being protected there.
“Daw siya bala ang nagbulos kay Ramy Poja, na daw Robin Hood man siya sa lugar,” he added.
Poja, tagged as a Western Visayas drug lord, and his group engaged in a shootout with police operatives in Barangay Banago, killing him and his cousin in May 2018.
Aside from the said arrest warrant, Cabural said Villar also faced a murder case, which he was able to settle with the complainant.
Cabural said they are also checking Villar’s arrest warrant for robbery.
Villar will be facing charges for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, and another case for direct assault or attempted homicide, according to Cabural.
He is detained at Police Station 3.
