Arroyo to witness burning of shabu

CEBU — The 675 kilos of shabu seized during raids on two shabu laboratories in Mandaue City recently, will be burned on Friday in the presence of President Arroyo.

The President will be in Cebu to inaugurate the new Court of Appeals building but upon learning that Mandaue Regional Trial Court Judge Marilyn Yap had scheduled the shabu destruction on Oct. 15, she made it a part of her itinerary.

Authorities are considering two methods in destroying the seized shabu worth P1.5 billion — using the kilns of cement factories or coal-fired burners of power plants, or through chemical mix.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Department of Health and Department of Environment and Natural Resources have agreed though to use both methods.

In the latter method, shabu will be mixed with a chemical at the Inayawan landfill’s common treatment facility.

In the other method, the illegal drug will be burned in the kilns of cement factories or in the coal-fired burners of power plants.

The kilns of the Apo Cement Corp. (Apocemco) in Naga or the Grand Cement Corp. are being eyed. No arrangements, however, have been made with Apocemco.

Authorities are still studying how to dispose of tons of chemicals used in making shabu that were found in the Mandaue shabu labs, touted as among the biggest in Asia. The chemicals were reportedly enough to manufacture 7.5 tons of shabu worth P15 billion.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said he will not apologize to Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano because he never said that Ouano owned one of the warehouses-turned-shabu labs, contrary to what a story published in the Cebu Daily News said.

Instead, Gonzales said that if Ouano wants him to be a witness in a libel case the mayor has threatened to file against the newspaper, he would be very willing to do so, insisting he never said what was attributed to him by the paper.

Ouano has demanded an apology from both Gonzales and the newspaper for the story that named him as the owner of one of the warehouses, otherwise he would file a P100-million libel suit against them.

Ouano has already signed the complaint for libel and demand for damages, intending to file them this week with the Mandaue City prosecutor’s office unless the newspaper and Gonzales publicly apologize.

Even Reynaldo Esmeralda, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) regional director, said he was shocked and surprised by the report.

In the course of their investigation into the shabu labs, he said there had not been a shred of evidence linking Ouano to the operation.

While insisting that he never accused Ouano of being the owner of one of the warehouses, Gonzales, however, said the mayor still needs to explain his failure to detect the shabu facilities in his jurisdiction. — Freeman News Service