Abandoned shabu lab alarms Pangasinan officials

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Alarmed by an abandoned shabu laboratory discovered in Burgos town recently, Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino said he would inquire about it from the regional office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the provincial police command.

Lambino, executive director of the Pangasinan Anti-Drug Abuse Council, told The STAR yesterday that if necessary, he would also summon the officials concerned to the question hour of the provincial board.

"This report on the abandoned shabu laboratory is really alarming. We don’t want things like this to happen in Pangasinan. We cannot just relax," he said.

Landowner Wilson Bonilla chanced upon the shabu laboratory in the hilly area of Barangay Anapao, Burgos town last Sept. 23 when he was herding his cattle and saw tents put up on his property.

However, Bonilla reported his discovery to Burgos Mayor Domingo Doctor only after five days.

Doctor wasted no time and coordinated with the municipal and provincial police and the PDEA, which jointly conducted a raid.

The place turned out to have been abandoned, but the police found equipment for manufacturing shabu there.

"We are wondering why it is taking the government agency concerned too long to release (the results of the laboratory tests)," Doctor said in Tagalog.

"Shabu ba yung mga nakumpiska o ano? Sa Manila ba dadalhin o saan (Was the stuff seized shabu or what? Will it be brought to Manila or elsewhere)?" he asked.

Doctor said he has asked barangay officials to promptly report to the proper authorities any new faces, particularly foreigners, who they come across with in their communities.

Doctor wondered why those behind the shabu laboratory chose Burgos, one of the coastal towns in western Pangasinan, as the site of the illegal facility.

He suspects that the shabu makers could be operating "guerrilla-style" in rural areas, transferring from one place to another to avoid detection.

"Dati sa buildings sila gumagawa. Ngayon mukhang iba na (They used to do it inside buildings. Now it looks different)," he said.

In a report posted only last Friday on its website, the provincial police said lawmen found the following items in the abandoned shabu lab: empty mineral water containers, a container with an unknown liquid substance, a container with black residue, a big empty black bucket, four empty blue drums, two empty green containers, an empty stainless steamer, 57 empty dark-colored bottles, 20 pieces of white paper, four Styrofoam containers, eight Styrofoam containers with eight holes each, 66 rubber gloves, 10 rubber hoses, a cigarette pack with Chinese markings, and a yellow funnel, among other things.

Superintendent Noli Taliño, deputy police director for operations, told The STAR that foreigners with local contacts could be behind the shabu laboratory, noting the food wrappers with Chinese markings found there.

Taliño also noted that the leftover bread found in the place was not yet spoiled, indicating that the lab’s operators had not left the area for too long.

Doctor said the water containers found there were apparently bought in Dagupan City.

Taliño described the place as isolated, steep, slippery and bushy and located about 100 meters away from the roadside. Its surroundings emitted a foul smell, he added.

"Perhaps, this could be a mobile shabu laboratory but we cannot conclude yet until we have received the results of the laboratory tests," he said.

He said he has inquired about the delay on the release of the test results and was informed that the crime laboratory’s equipment was destroyed.

He said a number of drums were found buried in the sand, some of them empty.

Sometime in 1999, 422 kilos of shabu were seized from four Chinese men in the neighboring town of Infanta. It was considered the biggest shabu haul in the province.