NBI insists Davidson is ‘David Tan’

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is standing by its theory that businessman Davidson Bangayan is the “David Tan” alleged to be the financier of rice smuggling activities in the country, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

Bangayan was released after he was served a warrant for the arrest of Tan on Tuesday. But De Lima said Bangayan remains the main subject of the NBI’s investigation on rice smuggling.

“NBI is confident they have the right guy. They said they are convinced that Davidson Bangayan, the one who surfaced and was supposedly arrested by them, is David Tan,” the justice chief told journalists.

De Lima pointed to the testimonies of witnesses as among the pieces of evidence being cited by the NBI, even as she instructed the bureau to gather more proof that would establish that Tan and Bangayan are one and the same person.

For now, she said the NBI would continue to gather evidence to pin Bangayan down.

“I’m actually challenging the NBI to do that – build a strong case. I want more proof that he and David Tan are one and the same,” she said.

De Lima said she would meet with Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Customs Commissioner John Sevilla to coordinate the ongoing probe on rice smuggling activities in the country.

She said she would issue a lookout bulletin order that would alert the Bureau of Immigration (BI) on the possible flight of Bangayan.

The justice chief clarified the NBI did not conclude that Bangayan and Tan were not the same person – contrary to reports.

She said it was the Caloocan court, which issued the arrest warrant against Tan for charges of power pilferage, which cleared Bangayan.

De Lima said the NBI was forced to release Bangayan after its camp insisted that the arrest warrant specifically stated it was for “David Tan who is not Davidson Bangayan.”

The same arrest warrant was made the basis by NBI to arrest Bangayan when he appeared before the agency to deny reports linking him to rice smuggling activities.

De Lima said she was baffled why the court would specifically clarify in the arrest warrant that Bangayan and Tan were not the same person.

“This was the first time for me to see an arrest warrant where the court was the one that cleared a person. Instead of stating ‘alias or also known as David Tan,’ it stated “who is not David Tan’,” she said.

The DOJ chief said the NBI agents went to court to check the records of the case, but were allegedly prevented on grounds that they were not a party to the case.

De Lima said such refusal of the court to allow the NBI to access the records of the case was questionable.

“Why would they say that law enforcers have no right to look at the records of the case? They want to implement the warrant of arrest because it was addressed to any enforcer of the law, and NBI agents are officers of the law, so why were they denied access?” she said.

Bangayan appeared before the DOJ on Tuesday to deny that he and Tan were one and the same person.

He dismissed allegations that the Bangayan group of companies – Silver Dragon Resources Singapore Pte. Ltd., Silver Dragon Hongkong Limited, Advanced Scrap Specialist Corp., Amphibian Metal Trading Co., Advanced Transystem Corp. and Advanced Scrap Metal Corp. – have links to the alleged activities of Tan.

His camp also vowed to file libel charges against those who dragged his name into the rice smuggling issue.