No special treatment for 4 Chinese in floating shabu lab case, Palace assures
MALACAÑANG assured on Thursday that no “special treatment” will be accorded to four Chinese nationals convicted by a local court of illegal possession of illegal drugs, even after being caught operating a floating shabu laboratory off the Subic coast in 2016.
The Regional Trial Court in Olongapo sentenced the Chinese nationals with life imprisonment and imposed a P5-million fine each for possession of illegal drugs last Friday, December 14.
The Palace said it considers this development as a “clear proof” of the government’s unrelenting war against illegal drugs that “spares no one.”
“We assure the public that no special treatment will be accorded to the four Chinese drug convicts, as they serve their life sentence behind bars for operating a floating shabu laboratory in Subic,” Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said in a news statement.
“Similarly, we also give assurance to their families that they will be given proper treatment in prison, and they will be humanely treated in accordance with the Bill of Rights under our Constitution, as well as with appropriate Philippine laws and rules. We are also coordinating with the Department of Justice on the possibility of deportation to finally rid this country of these foreign criminals,” Panelo added.
While calling the conviction a welcome development, the DOJ, however, expressed dismay over the court’s decision to acquit the Chinese nationals on charges of manufacture of illegal drugs.
The charge on the manufacture of illegal drugs were dismissed “for failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” the court ruled.
Two years ago, the Chinese nationals from Hong Kong were nabbed by authorities off the coast of Subic aboard a 50-meter fish carrier-cumshabu laboratory, reports said.
Recovered from the vessel were a hydrogenator, an equipment used in the manufacture of shabu, and some 470 grams of the illegal substance.
The police said in earlier reports that the vessel was used as a manufacturing hub of illegal drugs, saying the contraband was placed in floating containers and thrown out into the sea where these will be picked up by other members of the syndicate.