Caloocan City Vice Mayor Macario “Maca” Asistio III surrendered his younger brother, a self confessed drug user, to authorities yesterday after learning that the latter has been in the police list of illegal drug personalities.
Senior Supt. Johnson Almazan, Caloocan police chief, said the vice mayor along with other relatives accompanied his brother Luis “Piting “ Asistio, 49, to the police station for his surrender.
Almazan said Piting’s surrender came after he told the vice mayor during an official gathering last Tuesday that his brother is in the list of personalities linked to illegal drugs.
“I directly told the vice mayor that his brother was on the list (of illegal drug personalities) that Crame sent us. He then took my cellphone number,” he said.
The police chief said he was surprised when the vice mayor called him up around 8 p.m. that day, telling him that he is bringing his brother to the police station.
The vice mayor said his brother actually approached and told him that he intends to surrender to the police in line with the intensified campaign of the national government against the illegal drugs.
Piting confessed that he is a drug user and had also engaged in drug peddling years back.
In the presence of the media yesterday, Piting signed a paper declaring that he voluntarily surrendered and that he is willing to undergo drug test in accordance with the policy of the police.
He vowed to cooperate with the law enforcers by providing them information on the illegal drug trade in the city.
Piting named some of his drug suppliers, but Inspector Bernard Pagaduan, chief of anti-illegal drugs unit, said the people he mentioned were already dead. Almazan confirmed this information.
Almazan said he wants to help Piting but he expects him to cooperate further with the police.
He added that “the act of Luisito is good indication that might encourage other big-time drug personalities to surrender.”
“I am encouraging them to surrender. We don’t want things to get bloody,” the Caloocan police chief said.
Pagaduan said Piting will be observed 24/7, “but if he continues to do his old ways, police will not think twice to arrest him.”
Earlier, Mayor Oscar Malapitan appealed to his constituents to cooperate with the government by giving information to the police regarding personalities link to illegal drugs.
The mayor even vowed to give rewards to “tipsters” who would provide the police information regarding suspected drug pushers in the city. (ED MAHILUM & JEL SANTOS)