Shabu theft suspect fails polygraph test, says NBI

The National Bureau of Investigation is now closing in on the thief who stole 7.37 kilos of shabu from its evidence laboratory.

Though NBI acting deputy director for intelligence Anthony Liongson refused to identify who their suspect is, he said the person had flunked a polygraph test.

"He failed during the material questioning. But he is still being closely investigated regarding the case," said Liongson.

According to Liongson, their primary suspect is an NBI employee who had requested to be transferred to another post at the time the drugs were discovered missing from the NBI’s forensic chemistry division during an inventory conducted by the Sheriff’s Office of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court and the Dangerous Drugs Board.

Liongson, however, added, that at the moment, all the evidence against their primary suspect is circumstantial. He added that even the results of the polygraph test could not be used as evidence, but merely as an investigation aid.

Last May 24, the chief of the NBI’s Forensic Chemistry Division (FCD) and two others assigned to the division were ordered relieved and charged administratively by Wycoco over the disappearance of the shabu under their custody.

Ordered relieved and charged with gross neglect of duty and misconduct in the Office of the Ombudsman were Isabel Pagulayan, acting FCD chief; NBI-Dangerous Drugs Division section chief Constancia Salonga; and evidence custodian designate Lucia Gonzales.

According to Wycoco, the three were relieved of their responsibilities and were made to account for their negligence and administrative lapses.

"Alternately, the three have keys to the evidence room. At the moment, we are finished with the administrative part of the investigation. We will still work on the criminal aspect," said Wycoco.

Wycoco said that a polygraph test conducted on Pagulayan, Salonga and Gonzales showed that the three were not involved in the actual act of pilferage. Wycoco added that though Pagulayan, Salonga and Gonzales will no longer be assigned as evidence custodians at the FCD, they would still be retained at the bureau’s headquarters to render technical services as chemists.

According to Wycoco, those still under investigation for possible involvement in the pilferage are all members of the NBI’s Special Task Force (STF) which initially got hold of the drug haul and members of the NBI’s Technical Service.

In his report to Wycoco, NBI deputy director for intelligence services and head of the investigation committee Samuel Ong said that a re-weighing of the drug haul showed that only 7.37 kilos of shabu worth P14 million were missing from the total 247.58 kilos of shabu recovered by STF agents from a unit of the Somerset Mansions in Pasay City on Dec. 26, 2000. — Mike Frialde