THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) filed Thursday before the Department of Justice (DoJ) criminal complaints against 44 individuals, including former PDEA Deputy Director General Ismael Fajardo Jr., former Police Senior Superintendent Eduardo Acierto and former Bureau of Customs (BoC) intelligence officer Jimmy Guban, over their alleged involvement in the smuggling of billions of pesos worth of illegal drugs using magnetic lifters.
PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said former BoC Commissioner and now current Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Isidro Lapena is not among the respondents.
“We haven’t seen any evidence that will link former Commissioner Lapena sa mga kaso,” explained the PDEA chief.
“Inupuan ng legal team ko and they reviewed everything and they gave their results to me and it was found out that he has no direct links in these particular cases,” he added.
On the other hand, the Director General Aquino said PDEA’s findings will be forwarded to the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) and the Office of the Ombudsman.
The PDEA chief pointed out it would be better for the PACC and Ombudsman to determine if Lapena should held administratively liable in the case.
Though Guban has been placed by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) at the recommendation of the Senate, the PDEA would not recommend the former intelligence officer being turned into a state witness in the case.
“We actually consider him (Guban) as a principal person of interest. I don’t think we will recommend his inclusion in the WPP,” said PDEA Legal and Prosecution Service acting director Czareanah Aquino.
The PDEA legal chief said it would be up to DoJ of Justice prosecutors to discharge Guban as an accused to become state witness.
Meanwhile, Director General Aquino already considers Fajardo and Acierto as “at-large” since they can no longer be located and contacted since the start of congressional hearings over the smuggled illegal drugs.
The complaints filed by the PDEA stemmed from the discovery of billions of pesos worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu, smuggled to the country by concealing them in magnetic lifters.
The first shipment, weighing 355 kilograms worth P4.3 billion, was first found last August 8 in two magnetic lifters stored at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) in Manila.
Afterwards, four magnetic lifters were found abandoned at a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez (GMA) in Cavite but were already empty and believed contained 1,618 kilograms of shabu worth P11 billion.
Under the PDEA complaint, Fajardo, Acierto, and Guban are accused of violating the Republic Act (RA) 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, as amended, particularly, for importation of dangerous drugs, attempt of conspiracy, and liability of a person violating any regulation issued by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB). (Jeffrey Damicog)
