PDEA agents entrap student peddling shabu near campuses

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January 15, 2026 | 7:43pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A male student who is to graduate from college next year got locked in jail instead for ignoring intercessions by his close relatives for him to stop peddling shabu in Kidapawan City and in nearby municipalities in Cotabato province.

The 24-year-old man was immediately arrested by non-uniformed agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 12 after selling to them P40,800 worth of shabu in an entrapment operation on Wednesday, January 14, along Osmeña Drive near the City Hall Complex in Barangay Poblacion in Kidapawan City.

Charlene Magdurulang, director of PDEA 12, told reporters on Thursday that the entrapment operation that led to the arrest of the suspect was planned after his close relatives reported to their agents his clandestine trafficking of shabu in different areas in Kidapawan City, the capital of Cotabato province.

Relatives and friends of the suspect, now in the custody of PDEA 12, said he also occasionally peddled marijuana supplied by the few remaining leaders of the now-defunct Dawlah Islamiya terror group hiding in isolated areas in nearby Maguindanao del Sur province.

They also confirmed that he secretly sold shabu near school campuses in Kidapawan City and in Cotabato's nearby Matalam and Makilala towns.

Magdurulang said they are thankful to the confidential tipsters, among them relatives of the now-detained shabu trafficker, local executives and the police for helping PDEA-12 agents plot the operation that resulted in his arrest and confiscation from him of six grams of shabu, costing P40,800.

Magdurulang said they shall use the shabu seized from him as evidence in prosecuting him in court for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.