Underground shabu laboratory in Bulacan yields bodies of 2 Chinese nationals

MANILA, Philippines - Elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) raided an underground shabu laboratory in San Miguel, Bulacan Monday night and found the decomposing bodies of two Chinese nationals there.

Multimillion-peso chemicals and equipment used in making shabu were seized from the illegal facility located underneath a two-story house on a five-hectare property surrounded by a high concrete perimeter fence in Sitio Biga, Barangay Calumpang.

It took PDEA agents until 5 a.m. yesterday to enter the underground lab and retrieve the bodies because of the foul smell.

“It’s the first of its kind. It’s like something you see only in the movies,” said Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino, PDEA-Special Enforcement Services chief.

“(It’s) one of the most sophisticated (I’ve seen so far). Ang ganda ng concealment nila (They’ve concealed it well), construction was well planned. This is definitely a large-scale shabu laboratory,” he told The STAR.

Marcelino said they could not have found the entrance to the underground shabu lab had they not been tipped off that the tiled floor of a comfort room in the house actually slid open to reveal a stairway.

He said he and the PDEA team only managed to enter some parts of the facility, as they would need equipment like a self-contained breathing apparatus and a suction machine that would clear the air inside the entire area.

Determining whether the busted shabu lab is small, medium or large has to be based on its production capability, which Marcelino said they have yet to determine.

But if size of the facility is considered, he and Maj. Val Lopez, PDEA-Complaint Reaction Unit chief, said it could be the biggest they have found so far.

Marcelino said the two Chinese nationals could have been dead for days or even a week, as maggots were already eating their flesh.

“One appears to have been burned based on discoloration on the face,” he said, adding that the PDEA was still trying to identify the two Chinese and determine their actual cause of death through an autopsy by the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory.

Marcelino said a Chinese woman and a two-year-old child, who appears to be her daughter, were taken into custody, as they were found in the house above the shabu lab.

“We cannot get information from them yet because they don’t speak Filipino or even English. We are still looking for an interpreter,” he said.

Aside from the chemicals and equipment, Marcelino said they also found semi-processed shabu and a recipe or formula for making the illegal drug written in Chinese.

The PDEA quoted a barangay official as saying that Chinese nationals came to see him last year to inform him that they would build a piggery in the remote property.

The PDEA, along with the local police and the military, swooped down on the underground shabu lab based on information provided by a concerned citizen to Brig. Gen. Noel Coballes of the First Scout Ranger Regiment.        – With Ric Sapnu