Roque: Cebu contacts of shabu lab’s ‘financier’ identified

CEBU — Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said they have identified the local contacts of suspected shabu financier Calvin de Jesus Tan and are now building the cases against them.

Ablan, who was in Cebu the other day, said they got the names of Tan’s local contacts from his personal effects like his cellphone’s SIM card and laptop computer, which are now in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation.

In a phone interview with The Freeman, Ablan, however, refused to confirm if there were local government and police officials and businessmen in the list of Tan’s local contacts, saying it would jeopardize the ongoing case build-up.

But in an ABS-CBN report, Ablan said some of the local contacts are "ranking officials in government" and "ranking law enforcement officials."

"I am very happy to tell you that heads will roll," Ablan told TV Patrol Cebu.

Tan was extradited from Hong Kong last July 19 to face trial together with 19 other suspects captured in last September’s raid on a shabu laboratory in Mandaue City, believed to be among the biggest in Asia.

One of the suspects, Simon Lao, has executed an affidavit against Tan.

During his arraignment, Tan refused to enter a plea, prompting the court to enter a plea of not guilty in his behalf.

Cebu City South district Rep. Antonio Cuenco could not also say whether some of Tan’s local contacts are among the suspected drug lords whom he revealed in Congress in a privilege speech several years ago. — With Fred Languido/ Freeman News Service