San Juan shabu raid informants in danger

The lives of three Filipino-Chinese informers, who played key roles in the successful raid at the shabu laboratory in San Juan last month, are reportedly in danger.

Narcotics Group (NarcGroup) chief Director Efren Fernandez said the three Filipino-Chinese informers are now in hiding after they monitored suspicious-looking men tailing them each time they report for work.

Concerned for the safety of his informers, Fernandez immediately ordered a round-the-clock security on them and their families amid reports that the Chinese triad had set aside a P10 million budget for their liquidation.

Since Fernandez launched an all-out anti-drugs campaign last year, a total of 23 Chinese triad members, four of them listed in the Top Level Order-of-Battle of the NarcGroup, have been arrested.

The NarcGroup also cut-off the China-based criminal syndicate’s main route of importation at the Bureau of Customs and their distribution pipeline seaports and airports, so that for them to resume operation they must start from scratch.

"The Chinese triad are very angry that their billion-peso business in the country had been crippled permanently," a Narcotics official said. "That’s why the drug syndicate is too willing to spend that much just to warn Fernandez and those working for him that they would not take their recent beatings sitting down."

At least four Filipino-Chinese informers helped the NarcGroup in intelligence and case build-up until the successful raid at the San Juan shabu laboratory. But the Chinese triad succeeded in silencing one of them, David Sy-Lato, also a civilian agent of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who was shot dead in Binondo, Manila two weeks ago. However, Sy-Lato, a gun club president managed to drew his service firearm and return fire on the suspects, wounding one of them, Decoroso Pamesa, who is now under heavy guard at the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital. Police probers are presently tyring to establish whether Pamesa is a "hitman" for the Chinese triad.

Sy-Lato was tracking the "money trail" of the local counterparts of the Chinese triad at the Binondo Central Bank when he was "liquidated." Prior to his death, Sy-Lato told his wife that suspicious-looking men were tailing him.

Earlier, police said the San Juan operations of the Chinese triad was headed by a son of a prominent politician whom Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Leandro Mendoza only identified by his codename, "Dragon Head."

Mendoza said he will only reveal the identity of "Dragon Head" after evidence gathered is enough for the filing of appropriate charges against him in court.

Two sons of jailed former President Joseph Estrada, Jude and San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor Ejercito, surfaced and vehemently denied they have something to do with the shabu lab operations.

Fernandez refused to identify his three other Filipino-Chinese informants but admitted they played key roles in the crippling of the San Juan shabu laboratory.

"It seems that the Chinese Triad knows every move of our Filipino-Chinese informers and the car they used," said a Narcotics official, suspecting that there is a "mole" within their ranks.

The NarcGroup chief also called a meeting recently reminding policemen involved in the San Juan operation to take the Chinese triad threat seriously.