Senate seeks raps vs alleged shabu smugglers
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee released yesterday its report on its inquiry into the alleged smuggling of tons of shabu into the country, recommending the filing of drug charges against several government officials, importers and Hong Kong nationals.
In its 45-page report, the committee – chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon – also made other recommendations to help prevent drug smuggling through the Bureau of Customs (BOC), including the elimination of “consignees-forhire,” lifestyle checks and investigation by the Anti-Money Laundering Council of those allegedly involved in the P11- billion shabu shipment case.
The report was signed by 14 senators, including Gordon, based on several resolutions seeking to probe corruption as well as drug smuggling at the BOC.
The report, however, made no mention of former customs chief Isidro Lapeña, under whose watch an estimated ton of drugs contained in scrap magnetic lifters entered the country in two separate shipments, one of which was intercepted at the Manila International Container Port last August yielding 355 kilos of the shabu.
Authorities traced another shipment to a private warehouse in Cavite in a subsequent raid but found only four empty lifters that are now widely believed to have contained more than 600 kilos of the drugs.
The committee asked the Department of Justice, the Office of the Ombudsman and other concerned agencies to investigate at least 18 individuals –including former and current officials of the BOC, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the Philippine National Police (PNP), private importers and eight Hong Kong nationals for possible filing of drug charges, among others.
Among those named in the report were dismissed PNP Supt. Eduardo Acierto; former PDEA deputy director general Ismael Fajardo; former BOC intelligence officer Jimmy Guban; consignee Marina Signapan; Karina Cuasay; BOC agents Gorgonio Necessario and Joseph Dimayuga; private importer Meg Santos; BOC x-ray operator Noli Martinez; BOC appraiser Girlie Umali; BOC examiner Jenaline Garcia and Hong Kong nationals KC Chan, Hsu Chung-chun, Zhang Quan, Lin Tien Yi, Lou Tian Yi, Chen Minxuan, Fung and Ping Cheung James.
Guban was recommended by the panel to be entered into the government’s witness protection program.
The panel also pressed for closer coordination between the BOC, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Trade and Industry for the proper and accurate registration of consignees.
It also called for the periodic training of BOC x-ray operators and the creation of a Customs academy.
The committee also sought amendments to the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act to shorten the declaration of abandoned goods from 30 days to just three days.
Meanwhile, the shabu shipment from the empty magnetic lifters found in Cavite could have made its way to Mindanao, according to PDEA chief Director General Aaron Aquino.
“There was a ‘high similarity’ between the illegal drugs recovered from the first shabu shipment at the Manila port and the drugs recently seized in Mindanao,” Aquino said yesterday.
“This could mean that there was only one source, one manufacturer, the way it was produced was the same,” Aquino said.
The sample was taken from the P2.4-billion shabu stuffed inside magnetic lifters and seized at the port of Manila.
Aquino earlier said the missing drugs have “flooded” Metro Manila.
Shabu prices dropped to about a third as the drug shipment that the authorities failed to recover were allegedly sold in the metropolis.