Tsinoy businessman faces court trial for mail-order shabu

Manila, Philippines -  A Filipino-Chinese businessman, arrested for allegedly importing shabu through a courier service firm but released hours later, has been charged in court, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said yesterday.

Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan reversed an earlier resolution issued by the Quezon City prosecutor’s office, which recommended that the cases against Marvin Sia be subjected to regular preliminary investigation and that he should be released from PDEA custody.

Baraan recommended the filing of two counts of importation of prohibited drugs, six counts of importation of controlled precursors and one count for possession of dangerous drugs against Sia.

The case was raffled off to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 227 in Quezon City.

Last Jan. 30, Sia was arrested at his family’s rented townhouse on Greenmeadows Avenue after he received packages that reportedly contained two kilos of shabu and six kilos of Piperonal, a controlled precursor and essential chemical, which is said to be used in the production of ecstasy tablets.

The RTC Branch 220 ordered the PDEA to produce the suspect in court after Sia’s camp applied for a writ of habeas corpus following the city fiscal’s resolution. Sia was released the same day he was arrested.

In the motion for reconsideration filed by the PDEA before the Department of Justice, the agency argued that it had “sufficiently proven the elements for importation of dangerous drugs and controlled precursors and essential chemicals as well as possession of dangerous drugs.”

In his resolution, Baraan said that “the fact that the subject packages were all consigned to Sia, coupled by his willing receipt of same when it was delivered to him, indubitably confirms that he was the importer. If Sia really had no knowledge of the shipment, then he should have declined to receive the packages at the very first instance. This, he did not do.”

Baraan recommended no bail for Sia.