Kenneth Dong coddled by DOJ employee?
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is verifying the identity of the owner of a house where alleged drug middleman Kenneth Dong went into hiding amid reports that the suspect in the P6.4-billion shabu shipment hid in Katarungan Village, a housing site reserved for Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors and employees in Muntinlupa City.
The NBI yesterday turned over Dong to the custody of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 where he is facing a drug importation case filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) last year.
Dong told reporters that he only visited a friend in Katarungan Village where he was arrested by agents of the NBI Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division (AOTCD) on Monday.
He denied he owns the house.
Dong admitted going to different places in Makati, Batangas and Bicol for supposed business transactions.
Katarungan Village, which is part of the New Bilibid Prison property, was reserved for government prosecutors and DOJ employees during the term of former president Corazon Aquino.
AOTCD chief Joel Tovera said Dong’s coddler would be charged with obstruction of justice.
“We are checking if the house is owned by a DOJ employee. It can be a subject of a lease. We will see if the suspect is a lessor, lesse or owner,” Tovera said.
NBI deputy director for investigative service Vicente de Guzman III denied that Dong had been hiding under the noses of NBI agents.
“Reports that Kenneth Dong was just wandering around Katarungan Village are not true. He was the subject of a manhunt operation,” De Guzman said.
The NBI reiterated that Dong’s location was disclosed by an informant.
Dong, also known as Dong Yi Shen, maintained his innocence in the illegal drug trade.
Customs fixer Mark Taguba tagged Dong as the middleman who helped facilitate the transfer of 602 kilos of shabu to a warehouse in Valenzuela City in May 2017.
Taguba is being held at the Manila city jail on drug charges.