A former councilor from Naga City, Camarines Sur on Tuesday accused the brother-in-law of Vice President Leni Robredo as behind the illegal drug trade in their province.
At a news conference in Quezon City, Luis Ortega, 81, backed the claim of President Rodrigo Duterte that Naga City is a hotbed of shabu.
He said 13 out of the 27 barangays in the city are involved in illegal drug activities
He alleged that Butch Robredo, brother of the late Department of Interior and Local Government secretary Jesse Robredo, who served as a city mayor since 1988 for six terms, is involved in the drug trade.
Ortega said the vice president and even Naga City Mayor John Bongat, as well as the city residents, are aware of the proliferation of the illegal drugs in their area, even as he accused the mayor as the protector of Butch Robredo, who has gone into hiding in the United States.
According to Ortega, he tried repeatedly to request a drug list from Naga City’s Sr. Supt. Julius Munez in February 2017 and Region 5’s then Chief Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe on March 22, 2017, but his request was denied.
He added that drug transactions were done in a drug lair called “Isla.”
Ortega also implicated the police in the “worsening” drug problem in Naga City, saying that one police officer has even built a safehouse in the drug-infested Isla.
He, however, claimed he does not have an axe to grind against the Robredos, even as he threatened to file a plunder complaint against the vice president with the Office of the Ombudsman for the construction of a “substandard” P80-million riprap project and P200-million bridge.
Manila Standard tried to reach the Office of the Vice President and Robredo’s legal counsel Romulo Macalintal but was not successful.
