DOJ withdraws case vs PDEA ‘big fish’

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has withdrawn the drug case it earlier filed against a Chinese drug suspect tagged by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agencies (PDEA) as a “big fish.”

In a motion filed last week, Prosecutor Benjamin Samson asked Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 103 not to proceed with the trial of Mark Sy Tan for sale of illegal drugs anymore.

The motion was pursuant to a DOJ resolution dismissing PDEA’s complaint against him after a reinvestigation and upon approval by Quezon City Prosecutor Donald Lee.

The RTC has set a hearing on the motion on Jan. 30, 2014. Until the court grants the motion, Tan would have to remain in jail. 

Tan was arrested in July last year after allegedly eluding a PDEA sting operation five months earlier, during which fellow drug suspect Clarence Chen Go, alias Tony Go, was reportedly caught in the act of selling a kilo of shabu for P3.6 million.

PDEA alleged that Tan is part of a “big-time” drug syndicate as a collector of sales of illegal drugs through his bank accounts. The DOJ rejected the allegation, saying the deposits cannot link Tan to the syndicate.

Tan said he was implicated in the case simply when PDEA agents relied on instructions given by Go for payment for the illegal drugs sold to the agents.