CAMP ALEJO SANTOS, March 26 -- Two persons were arrested in separate entrapment operations in the province on Wednesday for selling overpriced alcohol.
Col. Lawrence Cajipe, acting director of Bulacan Police Provincial Office, identified the suspects as Mark Marvin Dalawis, 24, a Grab driver, of Barangay Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City; Ma. Monica Ann Valencia, 34, owner of JCM wholesale store and of Barangay Palimbang, Calumpit, Bulacan.
Dalawis was nabbed by the joint operatives of the Bulacan Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Marilao Municipal Police Station following an entrapment in Barangay Loma De Gato, Marilao town.
Cajipe said the undercover police personnel bought from the suspect 18 pieces of one-gallon isopropyl alcohol for PHP665 each. The suggested retail price (SRP) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is between PHP500 and PHP550 per gallon.
Meanwhile, Valencia was arrested after selling 20 bottles of one-liter isopropyl alcohol without proper label, for PHP230 each. The SRP is between PHP125 and PHP130.
Confiscated from the suspect were 70 plastic bottles of alcohol.
Before the arrest, Cajipe said a test buy was done by the operatives in the said store wherein one bottle of one-liter isopropyl alcohol was sold by the suspect at a high price.
"The amount is not commensurate with the prevailing price as per initial coordination with the DTI Bulacan before the declaration of enhanced community quarantine," he said.
The suspects will be charged with violation of Republic Act 7581 as amended by RA 10623 (Price Act), violation of RA 7394 (Consumer Act) and violation of Section 7 RA 11332 (Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act).