ABRA ANTI-DRUGS COP SHOT TWICE

CAMP DANGWA, BENGUET -- An operative of the Abra Provincial Anti-Drugs
Task Force is in critical condition after sustaining two gunshot
wounds in the head early Sunday morning.

Belated report reaching the Police Regional Office in the Cordilleras
(PRO-CAR) identified the victim as SPO2 Ernie Heruela Guieb based in
Bangued, Abra.

Investigations disclosed that Guieb was conducting surveillance on
suspected drug personalities at Torehos Street when he met two persons
arguing with each other.

The policeman tried to pacify them but one of them suddenly shot him
twice on the left portion of his head.

Guieb was rushed to a local hospital while the still unidentified
assailants fled the crime scene.

Probers are looking into a possibility that the shooting incident was
a set up and that the two persons reportedly arguing with each other
were actually buddies.

Abra is one of the provinces in the Cordilleras where the drug trade
remains unabated, especially shabu-pushing in Bangued, the province
capital town, police said.

Over the weekend, the Agustin Begnalen Command of the mainstream
Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army (CPP-NPA) claimed
that a police officer and some persons identified with politicians
allegedly have links with drug pushers and dealers in the province.

Ka Diego Wadagan, spokesman of the Agustin Begnalen Command, said the
police officer and his cohorts are actually behind the drug trade in
the province but are putting the blame on the rebels as the alleged
coddlers of drug personalities.

PRO-CAR reported there are at least 138 drug personalities in its
watch list region-wide and that heightened surveillance is ongoing to
cause their arrest. HFP