9 Sinos, Pinoy in Lipa shabu lab convicted

LIPA CITY – Nine Chinese nationals and their Filipino cohort were each meted reclusion perpetua or from 20 to 40 years in jail for running a shabu laboratory in this Batangas city seven years ago.

Judge Albert Kalalo of Regional Trial Court Branch 12 found Chinese nationals Peter Santos Ong, Chuy Chuacoco, Tan Chin Hui, Tan Chin Bun, Lee Chang, Chang Sian, Ko Kiat, Wong Soi Kwan, Lin Chun and their Filipino cohort, Benjamin Marcelo, guilty of violating Republic Act 6425, or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972, as amended by RA 7659, without the benefit of parole, and ordered each of them to pay a fine of P5 million.

The 10 will be transferred to the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City on Monday.

The legal counsels for the accused, lawyers Bonifacio Sison and Eulogio Mananquil Jr., failed to attend yesterday’s promulgation for unknown reasons. The accused were instead represented by lawyer Ismael Macaset of the Public Attorney’s Office.

In their defense, the nine Chinese insisted that they were mere tourists in the country.

Seized from the illegal facility in Purok 6, Barangay Sto. Nino were 58.55 kilos of shabu, a Toyota Revo registered under Marcelo’s name, chemicals, utensils, implements, equipment, and tools used in manufacturing and transporting the illegal drug.

Marcelo, 42, alias Boy Marcial, owned the warehouse that was converted into a shabu lab, in a five-hectare farmland about 1,000 meters away from the barangay road.

Superintendent Antonio Atienza, the city’s police chief when the raid was conducted, said they were tipped off by barangay chairman Elino Meo who reported an offensive smoke coming from Marcelo’s property.

Acting on the information, police conducted month-long surveillance on the Chinese nationals who had been in the area for about seven months and who had made it appear that the warehouse was being used to manufacture plastic and paints.

During the raid, police also seized some 1,000 kilos of unfinished shabu, 19 drums of sodium hydrochloride, 18 drums of iodine, and 51 bottles of distilled water.