Parañaque mayor raids NBI safehouse

Oops and double oops.

Armed with a search warrant and the go-signal of the chief of the National Bureau of Investigation, the Parañaque City police led by Mayor Joey Marquez raided a suspected warehouse of pirated materials which, it turned out, were being used by the NBI as evidence in intellectual piracy cases.

The warehouse on Leviste street in Barangay Sun Valley, raided by Marquez and city police late Tuesday afternoon, was being used as a storage facility for pirated materials the NBI had confiscated from previous raids.

But in a phone interview, Marquez, known for his comic role in a local sitcom, insisted that the raid was "successful."

Wycoco, for his part, said the operation failed to find any illegal material or equipment.

"It’s much ado about nothing. The operation in Parañaque turned out to be negative," he said.

Wycoco explained that Marquez called him up and informed him on Tuesday about the raid to be conducted on the bonded warehouse owned by a certain Fortress law firm, which they believed to be keeping illegal materials like pirated VCDs and CDs.

"Mayor Marquez coordinated with us about the raid. We even encouraged him to carry out the operation," said the NBI chief, who noted that the NBI on orders of the court kept some pieces of evidence, including medicine and computers.

Marquez, city police chief Superintendent Roland Estilles, several policemen and members of the Bureau of Permits and Licenses Office (BPLO) swooped down on the warehouse at around 5:30 p.m. armed with a search warrant issued by Parañaque Regional Trial Court executive judge Helen Ricafort.

Once inside, the group saw the materials already labeled and with evidence numbers.

More than the "haul," the mayor said the BPLO discovered the warehouse did not have occupancy and business permits.

Marquez said he and the police were inspecting warehouses in the city for possible shabu factories, in accordance with President Arroyo’s directive. But the security guard at the Leviste warehouse refused them entry.

"We became suspicious. especially since the warehouse was padlocked. Through the windows, we also saw a lot of CDs. So we (applied) for a search warrant," he said.

Marquez also questioned the legality of using a privately owned place as a storage facility for counterfeit materials confiscated by the NBI.

"If these are evidence, then it should be at the NBI or in the custody of the court. There was also no custodian in sight," he said.

Marquez said the law firm has among its clients big label companies.

During the "raid," the firm’s lawyers and several NBI agents arrived to confirm that the warehouse is being used by the government agency.

Although court evidence is kept there, Wycoco admitted the bureau does not guard the warehouse. "It was the private complainant who pays the monthly bill to ensure that they can still use the product once the case is resolved," he said.