Former town official killed as drug suspect

By Mar S. Arguelles LEGAZPI CITY --- Anti-narcotics operatives on Sunday last week killed a former Matnog town administrator who resisted arrest during an anti-illegal drug operation in Barangay Talisay in Sorsogon City, according to a report reaching the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Bicol Monday. Killed was Edgar Gardon, tagged by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as a high-value target (HVT) drug personality operating in Sorsogon province, Police Senior Inspector Maria Luisa Calubaquib, PNP Bicol spokesperson, disclosed. Calubaquib said joint operatives of PDEA and Sorsogon City PNP, armed with a search warrant, raided at about 7:15 a.m. Sunday a unit rented by the suspect at Balay Dormitoryo in Monreal St., Sorsogon City. When served with the warrant of arrest, the suspect allegedly resisted and instead pulled a handgun that prompted the raiding team to fire, killing the suspect instantly. Christian Frivaldo, PDEA regional director, in a phone interview said initial report reaching his office indicated that several handguns, including a sub-machine rifle, were recovered inside the suspect’s room. He said the suspect was a former Matnog municipal administrator during the term of former Mayor Emilio Ubaldo of Matnog town. Frivaldo added the suspect had been suspected to have connection with Peter “Jaguar” Lim – a suspected top drug lord allegedly operating in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. Lim had reportedly set up a safe house in a beach resort in Matnog town, but such resort had since been taken over by a new management. A Peter Lim, also from the Visayas, first held as a suspected drug lord, was recently freed by the Department of Justice for alleged lack of evidence in the case filed against him.