‘Probe grant of bail to Sino chemists’

The head of the anti-narcotics unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) ordered a thorough investigation yesterday on why five detained Chinese chemists caught during a raid on a makeshift shabu laboratory in Pasig City last year were granted bail.

Narcotics Group (NarcGroup) chief Director Efren Fernandez said investigators will gather evidence on what went wrong with the handling of the drug trafficking case so immediate corrective measures could be put in place.

"We want to identify the lapses on our part and plug the loopholes so we can secure the conviction of the five Chinese chemists who turned out to be undocumented aliens," said Fernandez in an interview. "There is no finger pointing involved here."

The NarcGroup investigators will have a lengthy talk with Assistant City Prosecutor Conrado Tolentino, police chemist Inspector Vivian Gumabay and the arresting officers of the suspects Chua Chuy Li, 37; Xingfu Wang 31; Joey Lu Cruz, 34 and Huang Hong Wei, 34.

Fernandez is interested to know why Tolentino failed to impose a strong objection on the decision of Judge Rodrigo Lorenzo of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 266 to grant the suspects bail, whether the summons for Gumabay was misplaced deliberately and why the testimonies of the arresting officers of the five Chinese chemists are conflicting. "I would like to see the actual report of my investigators before handing down a decision on what to do to remedy the situation," said Fernandez. — Non Alquitran