Failure of DOJ to name Tan's links irks Cuenco

Cebu City south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco, vice chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, expressed his disappointment over the failure of the Department of Justice to identify and charge the local contacts of suspected shabu financier Calvin de Jesus Tan.

Cuenco said until now none of the local contacts of Tan have been identified and charged in court by the National Bureau of Investigation.

Cuenco said he will report the matter to President Gloria Arroyo next week for her to pressure the DOJ to identify Tan's local contacts and prosecute them.

Cuenco will be with her in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Asia Pacific Economic Conference.

A few months ago, Rep. Roque Ablan, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said that they have already identified Tan's local contacts and are building up the cases against them.

Ablan made this statement during a seminar workshop sponsored by the Southeast Asian Nations and China Cooperative Operation in Response to Dangerous Drugs held at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug several months ago, but until now none of the alleged local contacts have been charged.

Tan was tagged as the alleged financier of the huge shabu laboratory discovered in Umapad, Mandaue City, last year. He is currently facing charges before the Regional Trial Court in Mandaue city after the Philippine government succeeded in extraditing him from Hong Kong where he was arrested for possession of illegal drugs.

Cuenco said it would not have been difficult for the authorities to identify Tan's local contacts had they only agreed on the condition set by Joseph Yu, one of those caught in the raid, that he will reveal the identities of these local contacts if he would be taken in as a state witness. - Fred P. Languido