Couple nabbed in P6.8-M shabu bust in Maguindanao Norte
Police arrested a 42-year-old vendor and her husband for selling a kilo of alleged shabu worth P6.8 million in Sultan Kudarat town, Maguindanao del Norte last Sunday, November 10.
Lt. Colonel Esmael Madin, Sultan Kudarat town chief, identified the suspects as Bella Odin and her husband Oks Odin, a driver, both residents of Barangay Dalican in that town.
Madin said the Odin couple was a target of a drug bust operation after police received numerous reports of their alleged illegal drug activities.
P50-M smuggled cigarettes seized in BARMM in last 3 months
Anti-smuggling operations waged by the Philippine National Police in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PNP-BARMM) for the past three month have netted P50 million in untaxed cigarettes.
Brigadier General Romeo Macapaz, PNP-BARMM regional director, said most of the smuggled cigarettes came from neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, and clandestinely shipped to Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces.
Macapaz said the latest seizure was in Barangay Simuay, Sultan Mastura town in Maguindanao del Norte where police, acting on a tip from a civilian informant, seized P450,000 worth of smuggled cigarettes.
400 solar kits given to Surigao Norte island-villages
A government-funded non-government-organization has distributed 400 units of solar kits to island villages in Surigao del Norte.
The project, implemented by the Mindanao Development Authority and funded by a grant from the BIMP-EAGA and Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund, was carried out by the Light of Hope Philippines, which distributed them to island-villages that have been destroyed by typhoon Odette.
Jovie Gil Montajes , project engineer of Light of Hope Philippines, said many of these villages have been without electricity for months and subsequently lost many of their livelihood.
He said it would take months before these island-villages can interconnect with the Mindanao power grid.
