Court asked to transfer Boratong to Pasig jail

The police have asked the Pasig Regional Trial Court to have accused drug trafficker Amin Imam Boratong transferred to the Pasig City Jail following unconfirmed reports that he has been receiving preferential treatment from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Boratong has been sighted in several occasions across Metro Manila under escort by NBI agents.

Boratong and his wife are currently detained at the NBI while awaiting trial for allegedly running a drug den or shabu tiangge (flea market) in Pasig. The den was raided by the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF), a unit of the Philippine National Police, early last year.

Boratong refuses to be detained in Pasig, fearing that someone might have him killed to keep him quiet about his operations.

In a four-page motion requesting Boratong’s transfer, Senior Inspector Roque Merdegia Jr., the AIDSOTF’s legal officer, complained that Boratong was being taken out of his cell without prior court permission.

Judge Abraham Borreta, who had granted Boratong’s request to keep him in NBI detention, had earlier warned the NBI that it risked being cited in contempt of court for taking Boratong out of detention without prior court clearance.

"The accused Amin Iman Boratong seemingly enjoys special privileges from the NBI at the expense of the authority of the honorable court," Merdegia stated in his motion.

Citing intelligence information, Merdegia claimed that Boratong was seen last Feb. 11 in his Chevrolet SUV on C5 Avenue in Pasig under escort by NBI agents on board two vans. He was also sighted at Greenhills shopping center accompanied by unidentified armed men, presumably NBI agents, early this month.

During the hearing Thursday, Boratong’s lawyer Raymund Fortun dismissed the sightings as "hearsay" and demanded that Merdegia disclose his information source.

Merdegia replied "it would be against PNP procedure" when Borreta asked if he could present his source. "We cannot jeopardize the identity of our witness considering that he was an insider from the NBI," he later told The STAR.

Borreta gave the AIDSOTF lawyer five days to substantiate his charges and the prosecution also five days to submit their comments. The defense was given 10 days to scan the intelligence reports and submit its opposition to Merdegia’s motion.