House panel to probe shabu bust controversy

CEBU — A congressional inquiry will try to get to the bottom of the mysterious discrepancy in the volume of shabu police may or may not have confiscated from an alleged drug courier, Rep. Antonio Cuenco said.

Cuenco said the inquiry, which he will propose as holdover chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, can be expected to take place before the month ends.

Cuenco said he was forced to seek a congressional inquiry after his own discreet investigation, as well as that by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), failed to shed light on what happened to half of a four-kilo shipment of shabu which members of the Maritime Police were believed to have seized from suspected drug courier Willy Solon as he disembarked in Cebu from a ship from Manila.

Solon had insisted that he was transporting four kilos of the illegal drug but the four Maritime Police personnel who made the seizure claimed having confiscated only two kilos.

A kilo of shabu has an estimated street value of P2 million.

Solon told Cuenco that he was willing to undergo a polygraph test to prove his claim. But his lawyer, Noel Archival, later advised him against taking the test, dismissing it as inconclusive and thus, useless.

The four policemen, who similarly assured Cuenco of their own willingness to take the lie detector test provided that Solon also undergo the same test, later declined to do so on the advice of their lawyer.

Lawyer Delon Orot wrote the PDEA that his clients — Senior Inspector Roger Mangaoang, PO3 Florito Banilad, PO2 Eric Henry Deluna and PO1 Napoleon Taneo — will only take the polygraph test if Solon commits his allegations in a sworn statement and takes the same test ahead of the policemen.

Inquiry

Given these developments, Cuenco said he believes the only way to determine who is telling the truth and find out if two kilos of shabu are really missing or not is for the House to step in and conduct an inquiry.

Cuenco said Solon may also reveal in the inquiry who had sent him to Cebu to deliver the shabu. Solon initially claimed that a certain Archua had asked him to deliver the shabu to a resident of Labangon in Cebu City.

In his talks with Solon, Cuenco said the suspect claimed the police did not immediately report his arrest but tried to parlay his freedom with a monetary demand to Archua by telephone from two pension houses to where he was taken.

When the alleged negotiations failed, the arrest was announced the following day and Solon was presented to the media, or so he claimed.

Cuenco, however, admitted that he foresees a problem arising from the insistence of Solon’s lawyer that his client never had any shabu with him at the time of his arrest last July 28.

PDEA regional director Gaudencio Pagaling explained the delay in filing a case against the four policemen by saying he is just waiting for the action of city prosecutors.

If the prosecutors drop the case against Solon, Pagaling said, that will be the time he will file a case against the four policemen for bungling their case. — Freeman News Service