Court orders Taguba transfer to PNP
MANILA — A Manila court has ordered the transfer of Customs "broker" Mark Taguba from the National Bureau of Investigation to the police detention quarters in Quezon City.
In a report by News5, the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 has ordered on Friday morning the transfer of Taguba from the NBI headquarters to the Philippine National Police detention center.
Citing threats to his life, Taguba earlier filed a motion before the Manila court to be allowed detention inside the NBI.
Taguba, through his lawyer Raymond Fortun, implored to the court that detention in a regular city jail in Manila "poses greater risk to the life, safety and security" of his client.
Fortun stressed that with the congestion in the Manila jail and the nature of his client's earlier testimony at the Senate inquiry, Taguba is a vital witness in the case and needs security.
Taguba was among the resource persons in the Senate's legislative inquiry into the P6.4 billion shabu shipment case that slipped past the Bureau of Customs last year. He tagged several Customs officials in the money-making scheme, including Nicanor Faeldon, former chief of the bureau and now Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator.
Taguba is facing drug importation charges over the multi-billion shabu shipment case before the Manila court. On January 29, the said court issued a warrant against Taguba and several other accused in the case.
The Manila court also deferred the arraignment of Taguba to April 6.
Taguba and his co-accused Teejay Marcellana, also on Friday, filed a 22-page motion to quash information or recall the warrant.
A motion to quash is a legal action that asks the court to render a previous ruling of a lower court invalid.
In the said motion, Fortun, counsel of Taguba and Marcellana, argued that there is no probable cause to issue an arrest warrant for his clients.
Fortun said that the DOJ is letting the "real importers" run scot-free by charging Taguba and Marcellana.
"They found probable cause where there is none, and was not even able to prosecute a single government official who may have had a hand at letting the biggest drug shipment in the history of the Philippines slip past our customs," the motion further reads.
The DOJ has dropped the name of Faeldon and several other BOC officials from the charge sheet, citing the "weak" complaint filed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.