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John Unson - Philstar.com
March 9, 2026 | 7:37pm
The two shabu dealers, from whom police seized P20.7 million worth of methamphetamine during an entrapment operation in Picong, Lanao del Sur, are now in police custody.
Photo courtesy of Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY— Plainclothes policemen seized P20.7 million worth of shabu from two dealers during an entrapment operation in Barangay Maladig, Picong, Lanao del Sur, on Monday morning, March 9.
Ethnic Maranao community leaders and local officials who assisted units of the Police Regional Office–Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in planning the operation told reporters at noon that the suspects, Ben Paidumama Buisan and Markie Guiani Abag, are now in police custody.
Police Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of PRO-BAR, confirmed to reporters that officers seized three and a quarter kilos of shabu, worth P20.7 million, during a tradeoff along a highway in Barangay Maladig, Picong.
Authorities also impounded the dark grey Toyota Fortuner used by Buisan and Abag to transport the shabu to Barangay Maladig during the entrapment operation.
Police officials said Buisan, 55, and Abag, 46, both come from prominent families in Talitay town in Maguindanao del Norte, one of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The Picong entrapment operation involved personnel from the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit–Regional Special Operations Group, led by Lt. Col. Tan Bulaglag; provincial officers under Capt. Mubarrak Dimakuta in Lanao del Sur; and anti-narcotics agents from other PRO-BAR units in the province.
De Guzman added that the offices of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. and municipal officials in Picong, one of the province’s 39 towns, assisted in planning the operation that led to the suspects’ arrest.
“To all of the local executives who supported the operation that resulted in the arrest of these two shabu dealers, we are very grateful,” De Guzman said.
De Guzman said the police team, with the assistance of Adiong, chairperson of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council, immediately arrested the two suspects after they handed over their P20.7 million worth of illegal drugs to the plainclothes officers.
He added that Buisan and Abag will be prosecuted for violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
De Guzman also noted that Adiong, now in his second term, and local officials in Picong have pledged to assist PRO-BAR in building a strong criminal case against the two suspects.
