Cops seize diesel being sold in church compound in Bukidnon

Authorities seized several drums containing illegal diesel inside a church compound in Kitaotao, Bukidnon and arrested a suspect, according to John Consulta’s “24 Oras” report on Tuesday.

According to the Philippine National Police-Regional Special Operations Unit (PNP-RSOU), the recovered diesel was being illegally sold in a scheme called “paihi.”

“Medyo maganda na yung mga nakuha nating intelligence reports [The intelligence reports we got were pretty good]. We conducted buy-bust operations and some of our men posed as a buyers and...that resulted to the confiscation of this more or less P150,000 amount of fuel inside the compound of the church,” Police Brigadier General Benjamin Acorda, Regional director PRO10 said.

Among those who bought the diesel were cargo and heavy construction trucks, paying P1,000 for 20 liters of crude oil.

“Tumawag kasi sa atin ang isang kompanya ng trucking na sila ay nalulugi na, lalo na nung sumipa itong presyuhan ng krudo na kung saan napakataas sa market. Napakabilis maubos yung mga krudo nila yun nga nalaman nila nagpapaihi yung driver nila kaya nagsumbong sa atin,” Police Lieutenant Colonel Vic Cabatingan, chief RSOU PRO10 said.

(A trucking company called us that they were already losing money, following the continuous increase of oil prices in the market. They ran out of crude oil so quickly and they found out that their driver was illegally selling the oil, so they complained to us.)

Meanwhile, over P400,000 worth of diesel were seized and the suspect arrested in a separate operation conducted in Iligan.

The suspects, on the other hand, refused to give their statements.

“We filed charges against them for violation of PD No. 1865 otherwise known as the illegal selling of petroleum products. This is punishable for two to five years at the same time a fine from P20,000 to P50,000,” Acorda said. — Richa Noriega/BM, GMA News