PDEA eyes raps vs lessors of houses used as shabu labs

MANILA, Philippines - The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) wants charges filed against three people who leased out the three Ayala Alabang properties used as shabu laboratories by Chinese drug suspects.

In an interview late Tuesday, PDEA Director General Jose Gutierrez Jr. identified the three as Gloria Cahulogan, corporate secretary of Fuerte Holdings Inc., and house owners Mario Albarracin and Joezen Lim, based on documents gathered by the agency.

He said Cahulogan reportedly signed the lease contract with Si Kin Ming Chau for the one-hectare property at 504 Acacia Avenue raided by PDEA agents on Jan. 6. Five Chinese nationals were arrested during the operation.

Based on the contract, the monthly rent for the property was P260,000. The lease contract was signed on Sept. 20 last year.

Four truckloads of drug evidence including drug manufacturing equipment, drug precursors and even manufactured shabu were hauled from the raided property.

Gutierrez, meanwhile, said Albarracin and Lim appeared to be the owners of the houses at 536 Country Club Drive and 119 Kanlaon street, respectively, that were simultaneously raided on Jan. 13.

Based on the contract, which was signed on June 10 last year purportedly by Albarracin, the lessee was a Chinese national named Kwa Hon Wong. The monthly rent for the house on Country Club Drive was P140,000.

As for the property on Kanlaon street, Lim signed the contract with a person named Ho Man Kwan on April 9, 2011. The monthly rent for the house was P110,000.

There was no one present at the houses on Kanlaon street and Country Club Drive when these were raided by PDEA agents, but they were able to recover at least three kilos of manufactured shabu.

Gutierrez said the agency’s legal and prosecution service is studying the charges that could be filed against the three signatories under Republic Act 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.