Tan placed in high-tech cell

Like a prized catch of a gem, suspected shabu lab financier Calvin de Jesus Tan was placed yesterday alone in maximum-security Cell 119, a specially-built cell complete with high-tech gadgets inside the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in barangay Kalunasan.

The highly secured cell, the size of which could accommodate 12 inmates, is equipped with a security camera to monitor his movement and laser beam sensors that would trigger an alarm system if he goes near the door.

These high-tech gadgets are not the only items to secure Tan. There are orders prohibiting jail personnel to serve his food and a prison trustee is instead tasked to do the job. Then a team of policemen from the Cebu Provincial Police Office was sent to augment the current CPDRC force of 100 jail guards and blue guards.

Governor Gwen Garcia said she had ordered the construction of the cell long before Tan arrived from Hong Kong and upon learning that the court planned to place him in CPDRC, the only well secured detention facility in the province.

Shortly after Regional Trial Court-Mandaue City Judge Marilyn Yap issued the warrant for his arrest and his commitment to jail, Tan entered his customized cell at 9:30am, a good distance from other ordinary cells where inmates have been in a jammed mess. Acting CPDRC warden Wilfredo Abella said a very strict policy will be imposed upon the visitors of Tan, such

that no one will be allowed to see Tan without clearance from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. He also assured that Tan would not receive special treatment from CPDRC. But Rep. Antonio Cuenco, who had worked feverishly in the past to bring Tan to the Philippines, had allegedly instructed CPDRC officials to provide Tan a separate food service. His first meal yesterday morning consisted of steamed rice and siomai.

Cuenco reportedly told jail personnel to give the food that Tan wants because it will be charged to the Cebu City government. If not, the congressman vowed to shoulder the cost of the food.

Tan's lawyer, William de los Santos, was his first visitor yesterday afternoon. De los Santos said they are planning to file a petition for bail contending that the evidences against his client is weak. Tan also met Hung Ching Chang alias Simon Lao, one of the accused in the shabu laboratory case who is also detained at CPDRC but is being eyed as a possible state witness. Tan admitted knowing Lao but denied the charges.

Justice undersecretary Ernesto Pineda however said the prosecution has a very strong case against Tan, the reason why the Hong Kong court was convinced to extradite Tan to the Philippines. It was however done on condition that he would not be meted with the death penalty in the event of a conviction. Tan was indicted, along with 11 other suspects arrested, in a Mandaue raid last September that busted a shabu laboratory, which has been deemed the biggest so far discovered in Asia.

On September 29, few days after the Mandaue raid, Tan was apprehended by officers of the Hong Kong Customs and excise department on his way to Macau for possession of illegal drugs. A notebook, laptop computer, bankbooks, mobile phone SIM cards, ATM cards, and $829,000 were seized from him. Tan was found guilty of the charge in Hong Kong and was sentenced last January 28 to nine months imprisonment.

The Philippine government sought for his extradition based on the RP-HK extradition treaty entered into by the two countries on January 30, 1995.