Witness vs Davao Group in quad comm custody

MANILA, Philippines —  Businessman Mark Taguba, one of three people convicted for smuggling P6.4 billion worth of shabu in 2017, has been placed under the custody of the quad committee of the House of Representatives due to “serious threats” on his life.

This developed after Taguba reaffirmed his seven-year-old testimony linking Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte and brother-in-law Manases Carpio to the drug shipment. Carpio is the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte.

The quad comm decision was in response to a request from former senator Antonio Trillanes IV that Taguba be placed under its custody, after the latter – toward the end of the hours-long hearing Wednesday night – named Paolo Duterte, Carpio and other members of a so-called “Davao Group” as the principal players in the shabu smuggling.

In prison for the past six years, Taguba said he was standing by his 2017 statement despite continued harassment and death threats.

“I did not recant anything in my affidavit about Pulong Duterte,” Taguba said in tears when asked by Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro if he had withdrawn his testimony against Duterte, who was then vice mayor of Davao City. Taguba said he only apologized to Duterte for mentioning his name during a Senate hearing at the time.

Taguba accused the Davao Group of manipulating Customs operations through key intermediaries, including Davao City Councilor Nilo Abellera.

He claimed he paid Abellera P5-million “enrollment fee” so he could avail himself of privileges being part of the group including access to Duterte.

Abellera, who was present at Wednesday’s hearing, admitted meeting Taguba in Davao City but denied receiving money from him. Taguba however countered Abellera’s denial, saying, “Kinuha niya ang pera (he took the money.)”

He also alleged that money was funneled through Davao Group operatives like “Tita Nani.”

“They said that Pulong Duterte will be the one to fix once I gave the enrollment money,” Taguba, 33, said.

He lamented that he been unfairly labeled as a drug lord. He also denied he was a Customs broker, saying he was just a trucker.

“I am not a drug lord. I am not a broker. I am a trucker. It is really difficult because the people looked at me as a drug lord. It doesn’t matter if I really did it. If there is one mistake that I committed, that is I got involved in the tara system. I cooperated with them,” Taguba said.

“I didn’t do the shabu. The people thought I am a drug lord. I want to correct that because I am not also a broker. I am a trucker. I was a credible witness initially. But life started to become miserable to me and my family when I mentioned the name of Pulong (Paolo Duterte),” he added.

Harassment

Taguba detailed the harassment he endured after naming Rep. Duterte and Carpio during a congressional hearing, including threats against his life and his family. “They also planned to kill my mother,” Taguba said.

He also revealed that his security detail from the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms was ordered removed by then senator Richard Gordon, leaving him vulnerable to further intimidation.

The shabu shipment, which originated from China, was seized in a warehouse in Valenzuela City in 2017, but questions remain about the true ownership of the contraband.

A Manila court sentenced Taguba and his co-accused Eirene Mae Tatad and Dong Yi Shen, alias Kenneth Dong, to life imprisonment for their roles in the shabu shipment.

They filed a motion for reconsideration and sought the inhibition of the judge handling the case.

During Wednesday’s hearing, an emotional Taguba criticized the justice system for failing to hold powerful figures accountable.

He also expressed frustration that while private individuals like him were convicted, key players escaped prosecution.

After hearing his testimony, overall quad comm chair Rep. Robert Ace Barbers announced the approval of Trillanes’ request  and directed the Bureau of Corrections to transfer Taguba to House custody.

Trillanes said Taguba is one of his witnesses in the criminal cases he filed against Rep. Duterte, Carpio and former president Rodrigo Duterte.

On motion by quad comm co-chair Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, the panel resolved to detain Taguba at the House “until the termination of the hearings or until the threat to his life is eliminated.”

Medical double-check

Also during Wednesday’s hearing, quad comm ordered the House physician and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to check on the true state of health of former Mandaluyong police chief Col. Hector Grijaldo who had consistently skipped hearings.

Grijaldo was the police colonel who accused Manila Rep. Benny Abante and Sta. Rosa, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez of allegedly coercing him into corroborating the testimony of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Royina Garma on the alleged reward system in Duterte’s drug war. He was the Mandaluyong City police chief when PCSO board secretary and former police official Wesley Barayuga was killed in the city in 2020. Garma was being linked to the killing.

Through his lawyer, Grijaldo asked for permission to skip the hearing on Wednesday. In a letter with an attached medical certificate, Grijaldo claimed that he is not physically capable of attending the hearing because he is still undergoing medical treatment for “rotator cuff syndrome” at a hospital in Pasig City.

“He wants to run. Running away from his responsibility and mentioning the name of this representation. He tainted the image of this representation, not only of this representation but the whole of quad comm,” Fernandez, quad comm co-chairman, said.

“Clearly he wanted to evade this hearing. He doesn’t want to stand by his affidavit in the Senate,” he said.

PNP Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (PHAU) head Col. Rowena Acosta also said that Grijaldo only notified them of his hospital admission when he was directed to explain his absence from the Nov. 7 quad committee hearing.

“Mr. Chair, it is not easy to believe this because it is just a rotator cuff issue. Why did he stay long in the hospital? While staying too long in the hospital he was able to go the PHAU to personally sign his attendance, but he cannot attend in quad comm hearing,” House Deputy Speaker David Suarez said.

Tumang released

Meanwhile, the quad comm lifted the contempt order on former Mexico, Pampanga mayor Teddy Tumang and released him from House custody.

Citing humanitarian reason, Paduano manifested a motion at past 11 p.m. Wednesday to lift the contempt order against Tumang, who was ordered detained by the quad comm at the House’s detention facility earlier in the day.

Paduano was also the one who manifested during the early part of quad comm’s hearing on Wednesday to detain Tumang for “lying and evading questions from committee members.”

Tumang later sent a letter to Paduano seeking reconsideration.

“I express my most profound apologies for any conduct that may have been perceived by this honorable committee to be non-cooperative and disrespectful. I firmly commit once again to help this honorable committee in all hearings, proceedings and investigations,” Tumang’s motion for reconsideration read.

“With that I humbly beg the compassion and indulgence of this committee to lift the order of contempt for I have not willfully and intentionally refused to answer the honorable committee. I am respectfully asking the honorable committee to reconsider the order of contempt for humanitarian and medical reasons,” he added.

Tumang said that he has diabetes and his blood pressure was declared not good by the House’s medical team.

In seeking Tumang’s detention for contempt earlier in the day, Paduano said the former Mexico mayor gave confusing answers while being questioned by Batangas Congresswoman Luistro on his closeness with Chinese nationals and Empire 999 incorporators Aedy Ty Yang and Willy Ong.

The Empire 999 owned the Mexico warehouse where Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and National Bureau of Investigation agents seized 560 kilos of shabu worth P3.6 billion in September 2023.

Luistro concluded that Tumang may have been helping Chinese nationals, who were incorporators of Empire 999, in illegally acquiring properties in Mexico, Pampanga during the former mayor’s term.

Luistro asked Tumang if he “personally know Aedy Ty Yang and Willy Ong,” but the former Mexico mayor immediately said, “No, Your Honor.”

In her follow-up question, Luistro asked Tumang if he ever met Yang and Ong, to which he admitted the two Chinese nationals once went to his office expressing interest to buy properties in Mexico.

It was at this point that Paduano butted in and told Tumang, “You are lying.”

“I have evidence that you personally know Aedy Ty Yang and Willy Ong. In fact, you traveled together to Fujian in China. I have photos showing you, Yang and Ong together,” Paduano told Tumang.

Tumang then admitted to Paduano that he went to China with Yang, Ong and other officials of Mexico, Pampanga.

“So you are lying, you are evasive. I am sorry to say this, your style is rotten. In my committee (public accounts) and the committee on dangerous drugs, we have known you already,” Paduano said.

Apparently feeling pressure, Tumang asked the committee to excuse him while Paduano was manifesting his motion to hold the former mayor in contempt.

Luistro resumed questioning Tumang on his ties with Yang, but he asked to be excused, saying he was feeling ill.

Upon his release, Tumang told the media that he had no intention to lie before the quad comm, adding that he was just misinterpreted by the congressmen.