Police colonel tagged in shabu laboratory gives self up

SAN FERNANDO, La Union, Philippines – A police colonel tagged as alleged protector of the shabu laboratory busted in Barangay Bimmotobot, Naguilian town in July last year gave himself up to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at Camp Crame last Monday.

Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, former police chief of Dagupan City in Pangasinan, surrendered two days after he was ordered arrested by the Bauang regional trial court (RTC) for violations of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2001.

Borromeo’s co-accused, Joselito Artuz, the shabu lab’s alleged financier, has evaded arrest after lawmen tried to serve the court’s order in Marilao, Bulacan where he resides.

Chief Superintendent Ramon Gatan, Ilocos regional police director and head of Task Force Bimmotobot, sent a team to fetch Borromeo to appear in court.

Sources said Borromeo would file a motion to seek detention at Camp Crame rather than be locked up in a facility of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Judge Rose Mary Molina-Alim of Bauang RTC Branch 33 recommended no bail for Borromeo and Artuz.

Alim issued the arrest warrants for the two last Friday after granting the prosecution’s motion to admit “amended information” which found probable cause against them.

La Union prosecutors Danilo Bumacod, Gaudencio Valdez and Manuel Dulnuan applied in the amended information the rules on electronic evidence under the E-Commerce Law (Republic Act 8792) because the two accused and Dante Tomas Palaganas, the shabu lab’s caretaker, had cellular phone conversations on the operations of the illegal facility.

Bumacod prepared and filed the amended information after Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez directed him to reinvestigate the case, which a three-man panel earlier had dismissed for supposed lack of evidence.

Alim denied for lack of merit some of the motions filed by the accused to hold in abeyance the issuance of arrest warrants, including Palaganas’ alleged recantation (motion to quash information).

“With the admission of the amended information, there is now a necessity of placing the accused under immediate custody in order not to frustrate the ends of justice,” read part of Alim’s 27-page order dated May 22, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR. – With Vic Alhambra