Navy insists it has legal basis on request to get Marcelino's custody

MANILA, Philippines - The Navy on Sunday maintained that its request to place Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, the military officer facing drug-related charges, under its custody has legal basis.

Navy spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo stressed that Marcelino is a soldier and should therefore be subject to military law.

“Our basis is not only the threat but it’s the fact that he (Marcelino) is a military personnel, he is subject to military law so that is our primordial basis,” Arevalo said in an interview.

Earlier, the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG) rejected a proposal of the Justice department to move Marcelino to another detention facility while undergoing preliminary investigation on drug charges. 

The Navy requested custody of Marcelino last month, saying he should be confined in a military-controlled facility since he is an active military officer. The Navy also cited the need to ensure Marcelino’s safety while awaiting the results of the investigation. 

PNP-AIDG chief Senior Superintendent Manolo Ozaeta, however,  said permitting the transfer of Marcelino to a facility of the Navy or the National Bureau of Investigation would “set a bad precedent” and “open to the floodgates of similar requests” from military personnel who are in jail. 

Ozaeta also believes that keeping Marcelino at a Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility would prevent public perception that the Marine officer is receiving special treatment while in detention.

Ozaeta also said that the BJMP can keep Marcelino safe while he is inside the Quezon City jail annex, where drug suspects are also detained.

Arevalo said the Navy respects the PNP-AIDG’s position but insisted that the request to detain Marcelino in a military-controlled facility has legal basis.

“Precedence is not our basis. Our basis is legal basis. It is properly rooted in legal basis. It may create a precedence but if it does, and if it is legal, then it is in accordance with the law,” the Navy spokesman said.

“The basis of the Navy is the law,” he added.

Marcelino and Chinese national Yan Yi Shou were arrested last month in a raid on a suspected shabu laboratory in Manila. Authorities seized some 76 kilos of illegal drugs worth P383 million during the operation.

The Marine officer is now facing charges for allegedly manufacturing, conspiring to manufacture, and possessing illegal drugs.

Marcelino is claiming that he was on a covert mission with the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines when he was arrested and that he had nothing to do with the drug syndicate. The Marine officer, who was described by his military colleagues as a serious anti-drug crusader, used to be the Director of the Special Enforcement Service of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.