LAOAG CITY—Personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)here conducted a simultaneous operation called “Oplan Galugad” to all prison cells in the province.
Based on a memo from the Ilocos Norte Police Provincial Office led by provincial police director Jose Melencio Nartatez, the surprise search operation aims to search for guns, drugs or any other prohibited items inside the jail.
Authorities deployed law enforcers along with K-9 dogs at the Ilocos Norte and Laoag City Bureau of Jail and Management Penology to search for these items.
But before the actual search operation, they subjected inmates individual body searches.
At the BJMP-Laoag, P/Chief Insp. Rommel Ramos of the Laoag City police said they searched 226 male and 28 female inmates; the police later then sent out of their prison cells to accommodate the entry of the operation team.
Aside from a pointed object like a scissor and a cigarette butt, the search operation yielded negative result.
The police however will subject the cigarette butt however to laboratory examination. The police did not give the reason for this. (Leilanie G. Adriano)