Calvin Tan's contacts reportedly identified

The chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs Rep. Roque Ablan of Ilocos Norte yesterday said that they have already identified the local contacts of suspected shabu financier Calvin de Jesus Tan and are already building up the cases against them.

Ablan, who was in Cebu yesterday, said that they got the names of Tan's local contacts from his personal effects like his cellphone's SIM card and laptop computer, which are now in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation.

During a phone interview with The Freeman Ablan refused to confirm if there were elected officials, police officials and businessmen in the list of local contacts saying it would jeopardize the ongoing case build up.

But in an ABS-CBN report, Ablan said that some of the local contacts are "ranking officials in government and some are ranking law enforcement officials."

"I am very happy to tell you that heads will roll," Ablan said over TV Patrol Cebu.

Tan arrived here in the Philippines last July 19 to face trial together with the men captured during the raid on a shabu laboratory in Mandaue City last September. One of them, Simon Lao, already executed an affidavit against Tan.

During arraignment of his case Tan refused to enter a plea, prompting the court to enter a plea of not guilty.

Cebu City South district Rep. Antonio Cuenco could not also say whether some of the possible local contacts of Tan are already part of the list of suspected drug lords that he revealed in Congress during a privilege speech several years ago. - Fred P. Languido and Jose P. Sollano