Witness tags drug smugglers, coddlers

MANILA, Philippines - A phone call from Chinese customs officials alerted the Bureau of Customs (BOC) last May 25 to a massive shipment of drugs to Manila and led to the seizure of 604 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu in Valenzuela City the following day.

Curiously though, the subsequent messages from the enforcement division at the Xiamen office of General Administration of Customs of China included a request to “protect” a “contact,” who led local authorities to two warehouses where the drugs were found packed in metal cylinders.

This narrative emerged at the inquiry conducted yesterday by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee into how such a large volume of shabu managed to pass through the BOC’s regular importation procedures.

“I strongly suspect that larger shipments (of shabu) slipped through the country at that time,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson said during the hearing.

Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) chief Neil Anthony Estrella told senators that the shipment from Xiamen arrived in the country last May 17 and was released from the BOC Port of Manila on May 23. The tip was received only two days later.

Estrella revealed that the tip from his counterparts in Xiamen included the warehouse address in Valenzuela City, a contact later identified as Richard Tan and his telephone number.

Tan owns Hongfei Logistics, which owns the raided warehouse.

“The owner is helping us but nervous, please contact with him and promise that you will not punish and protect him,” a portion of the message from Xiamen read. 

Sen. Richard Gordon, Lacson and other senators were puzzled that CIIS officials apparently did not make an effort to hunt and arrest Tan – whose Chinese name is Chen Yu Long – when he was the one who admitted to the importation.

The panel asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to issue a hold departure order for Tan even as his other alleged Taiwanese cohorts are believed to have already fled the country.

Following a request from Xiamen, Estrella with four CIIS teams made a “controlled delivery” of drugs to another warehouse in Valenzuela that same day and found another 100 kilos of shabu in metal cylinders.

The Xiamen official also gave the names and mobile phone numbers of those connected to the second warehouse. 

During the hearing, private Customs broker Mark Ruben Taguba II – who is also under investigation – identified Tan as a “consolidator” operating in Xiamen and is consolidating small exports under Hongfei. 

Taguba alleged that his firm and his van were used to deliver some goods – declared as kitchenware – from Xiamen to Tan’s firm but insisted that it could not have contained illegal drugs, which were too heavy for the delivery vehicle.

He pointed out that the drugs were contained in steel cylinders placed inside wooden crates that would need forklifts to load or unload. He added that only a few helpers from Tan’s warehouse unloaded the carton boxes.

Xiamen customs officials arrived shortly after the raid and interviewed their counterparts from the CIIS and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). 

Estrella admitted to senators that he and other CIIS officials recently went to China and received an official congratulatory letter from Xiamen officials.

During an executive session requested by Taguba, the witness gave names of officials he believed were involved in the smuggling of drugs through the BOC.         

Taguba was asked to write down in front of senators what he knows of the incident.

The witness testified in open hearing about an “open secret” in the BOC where “consignees-for-hire” are used to allow smugglers to bring in contraband without the consignee knowing the exact contents of the imported items.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III described Taguba’s narration behind closed doors as explosive, while Gordon suspects that the bribes to the smugglers’ protectors included cash and shabu itself. 

The panel later placed Taguba under the Senate’s protective custody, which meant he would be provided with bodyguards from the chamber. 

Lacson fears that bigger shipments might have slipped into the country during the same weeks in May after finding out that at least 520 transactions were done - of which more than 400 passed through the green lane.

He added that when the shabu-laden shipment was released from port, at least two other 40-foot container vans sent to Tan were released by BOC on the same day. 

“Those containers can easily contain another 600 kilos of shabu each. Why did you not track them? I have the tracking numbers, even the plate numbers of the container vans,” Lacson asked Estrella.

Before attending the Senate investigation, Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon encouraged the BOC officials and personnel to coordinate in the investigations, saying he himself would tell the whole truth and not half-truths. 

“Reveal everything,” he said.

In a statement, he also denied insinuations about a photo circulating on social media that showed him beside Tan 

He said the photo, posted on the internet last July 30, maliciously implied that it was taken before their May 26 raid in Valenzuela. 

Faeldon explained that he reluctantly agreed to Tan’s request to have a photo with him out of courtesy. 

“This attempt to link me in the apprehended shabu is outrageous. The photos themselves will prove that I only met Mr. Chen on the day of the raid itself,” Faeldon said. “The people behind this malicious attack only proved that I had crossed big names in the illegal drugs trade. However, this will not slow down our fight against drugs.”

Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon poses with businessman Richard Tan in a photo (left) taken from Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s Twitter account.

Bombshell witness

Faeldon told the hearing that he suspended last July 30 Larribert Hilario, head of the BOC Risk Management Office and “key” to why the shipment passed through the green lane. 

Under BOC rules, shipments from China are supposed to pass through the “red lane,” which means more stringent screening. The same rules mandate that a new importer must not be allowed to pass through the green lane, which is used for priority releases. 

But the leadership of the House of Representatives said it already has Hilario in its protective custody. 

“We will have a surprise witness,” a smiling House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas told reporters late yesterday afternoon, referring to today’s scheduled hearing of the dangerous drugs committee headed by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers. – With Delon Porcalla, Evelyn Macairan