Court orders arrest of personalities in P6.5-B shabu smuggling

MANILA, Philippines — Accused Customs fixer Mark Taguba surrendered yesterday after a Manila regional trial court (RTC) ordered his arrest together with seven others implicated in the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China.

His lawyer Raymond Fortun confirmed that Taguba surrendered to the Senate, where he enjoys legislative protection for testifying about the alleged corruption and smuggling activities in the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Fortun belied reports that Taguba was served an arrest warrant at the Senate. Taguba was turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

NBI spokesperson Ferdie Lavin confirmed that Taguba was turned over to the bureau last night. 

Taguba would also spend the night under the custody of the NBI, which will present him today to the media, Lavin added.

It was Taguba who exposed allegations of grease money and smuggling activities in the BOC, whose resigned chief Nicanor Faeldon remains detained for contempt at the Pasay City Jail for failure to pass the contrition test in connection with the Senate inquiry on the illegal drug shipment.?At one point, Taguba even linked the President’s son, resigned Davao City vice mayor Paolo Duterte, to smuggling. But he later cleared Duterte.

The Manila RTC has issued warrants of arrest against the personalities involved in the importation of the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China.?Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 46 Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa issued the warrants against Taguba, Kenneth Dong, Manny Li, EMT Trading owner Eirene Mae Tatad, Teejay Marcellana, Chen I-Min, Jhu Ming Jyun and Chen Rong Juan after the court found “probable cause” to hold them on trial.

The court set no bail for the criminal offense of drug importation, which is a violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act or Republic Act 9165.

Meanwhile, businessman Richard Tan or Chen Ju Long, who owns the Valenzuela City warehouse where the illegal drugs were delivered, was not issued an arrest warrant due to his pending motion to dismiss, which was filed Jan. 26 or a day after the cases were raffled off to the court.

Tan sought the junking of the case because the Manila court supposedly has “no jurisdiction to entertain or act on the criminal information” since the dismissal of the case by the Valenzuela City RTC Branch 171 also due to lack of jurisdiction has not yet attained finality.

Tan accused the prosecution of forum shopping when it “precipitately refiled” the case despite its pending appeal before the Valenzuela court.

In her order December last year, Valenzuela City RTC Branch 171 Judge Maria Nena Santos said she has no jurisdiction over the case because the information charges alleged importation of illegal drugs, which was consummated when the alleged drug shipment arrived from China at the Manila International Container Port on May 15, 2017.?The prosecution appealed the decision, saying that the 602 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride may have been unloaded at the Manila port, but the metal cylinders were delivered and later discovered by law enforcement agents at a Valenzuela warehouse owned by Tan’s Hongfei Logistics Group.

The smuggling scandal exposed alleged corruption and the “tara system” in the BOC.

DOJ refiles case

The Department of Justice (DOJ) refiled before the Valenzuela RTC the drug charges against the nine individuals tagged in the shipment seized in May last year.

No bail was recommended.

The DOJ indicted the nine personalities, this time with drug transportation and delivery in violation of RA 9165.

Santos earlier junked the prosecution’s claim that the offense was a “continuing crime,” saying it had no basis in law because the alleged transportation and delivery of the drug shipment at a Valenzuela warehouse was covered under a different provision under RA 9165 involving the sale, delivery, distribution or transport of dangerous drugs.

The Valenzuela RTC earlier dismissed the cases for importation, transportation and delivery of illegal drugs against the same accused for lack of jurisdiction.

The DOJ refiled the case, but this time separated the cases for transport and delivery of drugs filed before the Valenzuela court, and for importation of drugs lodged before the Manila RTC.

In the case filed last Tuesday, the DOJ maintained its finding of probable cause in the charges against all nine accused.

It also insisted on the jurisdiction of the Valenzuela RTC on the cases for transportation and delivery of illegal drugs since the warehouse where the shabu shipment was brought is located in the city. 

The DOJ stressed that the court has jurisdiction over the case because acts that are essential and material to the crime were committed in the city and that the court already acquired jurisdiction when it issued an order dated Nov. 24, 2017 for the conduct of an ocular inspection of the illegal drugs mentioned in the case.

In indicting the accused, the panel determined that the combination of the individual participation of each of the respondents, either as shipper, consolidator, facilitator, broker, financier, consignee or warehouse lessee – reveals a pattern of overt acts indicative of conspiracy to import dangerous drugs into the country.