Sotto hits DOJ for letting ‘big fish’ go

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Vicente Sotto III criticized the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday for dismissing a case against a suspected drug lord last month due to a technicality.

The DOJ should have been more cautious, more reasonable in handing the Mark Tan case, “considering the peculiarity of the case,” he said.

The DOJ, after dismissing the charges against Tan, proceeded to file charges against the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency agents who arrested him for allegedly extorting money from the Chinese national, identified as a “big fish” by the PDEA.

“As in the case of conspiracy, the DOJ said conspiracy is hard to establish.  We have to take into consideration that legislators included the crime of conspiracy in Republic Act 9165 exactly to capture the so-called ‘big fish’ in the drug industry,” Sotto said in his privilege speech.

Sotto found it “highly contrary to human nature and experience that a person would open himself to a possible prosecution… especially… (when) it involves a serious and highly penalized offense.”

Sotto said there is even a provision in the anti-drug law that establishes conspiracy between suspected drug dealers and drug peddlers.

Sotto expressed the belief that PDEA’s case against Tan was strong because even the Anti-Money Laudering Council found cause to freeze Tan’s bank accounts.

Due to the controversy, Sotto proposed the merging of the PDEA and the Dangerous Drug Board into a Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority to further strengthen the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.