MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday directed the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the multibillion-peso shabu shipment that slipped, once again, past the Bureau of Customs.
Guevarra, in a message to reporters, said that he has directed NBI Director Dante Gierran to create a team of agents to look into how the shabu shipment worth P6.8 billion entered the country.
The shipment was reportedly contained in seized magnetic lifters at a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. The same method was used, said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, in smuggling P4.3 billion worth of shabu at the Port of Manila last week.
“Considering the huge value of the illegal drugs involved, and the relative ease by which they were transported into Philippine territory, our investigation will consider all government agencies,” Guevarra said.
The investigation will particularly look into how “the Bureau of Customs, and private shippers, brokers, cargo handlers, warehousemen, even other law enforcement agents” may have had a hand in smuggling the multi-billion shabu shipment.
Last August 10, PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said that a ton of shabu may have already been circulating in the streets.
The authorities believe that the shipment was sourced from drug rings operating in the Golden Triangle in the shared borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
Aquino said that they are currently conducting a backtracking investigation to identify more personalities. A certain Chao Yue Wah, alias KC Chan, Albert Chan or Tony Chan, is said to be a liaison for the drug syndicate.
Aquino also expressed frustration at the BOC for the smuggled drugs.
He said in a phone interview last Saturday: “An international drug syndicate will never gamble in bringing illegal drugs here if they don’t have contacts within the Customs who will help facilitate the entry.”
In 2016, P6.4-billion worth of shabu also slipped past the BOC.
State prosecutors faced an uphill legal battle in charging and arresting personalities linked to the case.
Several BOC officials were cleared from the complaint lodged before the DOJ, due to “weak complaint” filed by the PDEA, but the Office of the Ombudsman’s fact-finding panel recommended filing of charges against former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon and other BOC former officials.
Since the P6.4-billion shabu controversy, Faeldon has tendered his resignation and has been reappointed as deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense. — Kristine Joy Patag