Shabu burned in Munti

Some 247-kilos of shabu with a street value of P494 million, most of which were what remained of the drug haul ordered destroyed by a Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge, were burned at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

The event was in observance of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking set by the United Nations General Assembly on June 26th of every year.

In his keynote address, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez assured a wary public that what was burned was shabu, not "tawas." Chemists of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) tested samples taken from several marked plastic bags and tested them in front of Perez, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco, Muntinlupa Congressman Ruffy Biazon, Muntinlupa Vice Mayor Jo Jason Alcaraz, representing Mayor Jaime Fresnedi; and DDB Executive Director Bernardo Lastimoso.

Wycoco told reporters that the NBI is set to arrest in the next few days the suspect in the shabu missing from the agency’s custody, and file charges against him. Wycoco declined to name the suspect.

The NBI has already suspended three employees of the agency’s laboratory. Some nine kilos of shabu were reported missing by Pasay City deputy sheriff Rodolfo Toledana early last month. But based on a re-check, the NBI said there were only seven kilos missing.

The loss was uncovered after RTC Judge Cesar Ylagan ordered the destruction of the 250-kilos of shabu seized in a condominium unit registered to a certain Sandra Lim in December 2000. — Nikko Dizon