CUSTOMS, PDEA PROBED FOR P1.8-B SMUGGLED SHABU

THE Department of Justice (DoJ) has formed a panel of prosecutors to determine the criminal liability of top officials of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in connection with the entry of P1.8 billion worth of shabu at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) in 2019.

The panel was formed after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recommended the filing of charges against Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, Customs Deputy Commissioner Raniel Ramiro, PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva, and several other officers and employees of the two agencies.

Prosecutor-General Benedict Malcontento said the panel is headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rassendel Rex Gingoyon with Assistant State Prosecutors Mary Jane Sytat and Ethel Rea Suril as members.

Last February, the NBI AntiIllegal Drugs Task Force filed drug charges as well as graft, grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public

Employees, Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service against PDEA directors Joel Plaza, Aldrin Albarino, Jigger Montallana and several customs employees, anti-narcotics agents, and PDEA personnel.

The Manila Times tried to reach out to Guerrero and Ramiro as well as BoC spokesman and Assistant Commissioner Philip Vincent Maronilla but they did not respond to messages sent to them.

The illegal drugs, weighing 140 kilos, were reportedly owned by Zhijan Xu alias Jacky Co and was found hidden inside a 40-footer container van that arrived at the MICP on March 22, 2019. The shipment was declared as tapioca starch.

The drugs were released from the MICP and were later seized in a warehouse in Malabon. The BoC later placed the drugs on the auction block, purportedly to catch the importer as it was reportedly a common practice in the Customs bureau that the owner of seized shipments eventually emerged as the winner in the bidding.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson did not buy the explanation of BoC and PDEA, saying that it is mandatory for shipments that were put on the auction block to be subjected to a 100-percent examination.

As such, Lacson pointed out that the auction of the tapioca was already a giveaway that authorities already knew that the shipment contained drugs.

But former BoC spokesman and now Port of Davao Collector Dino Austria explained: “What was auctioned at the MICP was tapioca starch and not ... shabu.”

Austria, who is now the BoC’s district collector at the Port of Davao, also pinned the blame on PDEA, saying that role of the BoC was only to provide support to the PDEA to ensure smooth operations that would lead to seizure of drugs and arrest of the people involved that facilitated its entry.

“Regarding illegal drugs, it is the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and not the BoC that acts as the lead agency. The bureau maintains close coordination with the said agency to ensure the timely and efficient apprehension of illegal drugs as well as the people involved,” said Austra, who was the concurrent district collector of the MICP.

It can be recalled that in 2017, during the time of former commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, 604 kilos of shabu valued at 6.4 billion pesos were released undetected at the MICP.

The drugs were later recovered in two warehouses in Valenzuela City, hidden in five iron cylinders, which customs authorities said could not be scanned by x-ray machine.

In 2018, under Commissioner Isidro Lapeña, two separate shipments of shabu, hidden in magnetic lifters, also entered the country via the MICP.

The first shipment involves 500 kilograms of shabu worth 4.3 billion pesos, while the second shipment of four magnetic lifters contain 1 ton of shabu worth P7 billion.

The first shipment, consigned to Vecaba Trading, was misdeclared as door frames. MICP authorities stopped its release after they received a tip off from PDEA. The importer was not accredited. The shipment was later found to contain shabu.

Both Faeldon and Lapeña were fired by President Duterte after Senate and House investigations revealed they have been remiss on their duties.