• THERESA MAE DULMAN
Police have cleared a 17-year-old high school student of any drug involvement after laboratory tests revealed the suspected shabu earlier recovered from his bag tested negative for methamphetamine hydrochloride, Bacolod City Police Office director, P/Col. Eugene Rebadomia, confirmed July 22.
Authorities also revealed that the student who planted the fake shabu was the same one who alerted campus security that the victim was carrying a weapon, as an act of retaliation.
“An intervention will be conducted, (like) psychological debriefing, and we consider him a victim instead of being a (drug) suspect,” Rebadomia said in a press conference.
The incident occurred during a routine safety inspection July 20 at a high school in Barangay Banago, where campus security searched the student’s bag following reports that he carried a weapon.
During the search, security personnel found two plastic sachets containing approximately 30 grams of white crystalline substance, initially suspected to be shabu, and estimated to be worth over P200,000.
Secretary to the mayor, Atty. Jose Marty Go, said the student responsible for planting the substance and making the report has been identified, per updates from Bacolod Schools Division superintendent Dennis Develos. | TMD
