Saturday, September 24, 2005
Tan case pushes Asean extradition treaty
By Garry Cabotaje
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
The extradition of Hong Kong-based big-time drug suspect Calvin de Jesus Tan was seen as a “breakthrough” in the anti-drug campaign not only in the Philippines but also in its neighboring Asean countries.
A year ago today, government agents busted a shabu lab in Barangay Umapad, Mandaue City, the biggest drug raid so far in Cebu, and arrested 11 alleged “shabu makers.”
The name of Tan, a 30-year-old Filipino of Chinese lineage, surfaced after Hong Kong authorities collared him at a terminal for Macau-bound ferries barely five days after the police operation.
Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south), who was instrumental in securing Tan’s return to the country, is confident the raid and Tan’s extradition will clear the way for the establishment of a multilateral extradition treaty among the Asean member-countries.
The Hong Kong Government yielded to the Philippine’s petition to extradite Tan after two of his alleged cohorts—Hung Chin Chang alias Simon Lao and Mortezza Tamaddoni—executed affidavits identifying him as the mastermind and financier of the facility.
Fourteen men, including Tan and two warehouse owners, are facing illegal drug manufacturing charges before the sala of Regional Trial Court Judge Marilyn Lagura-Yap in Mandaue City.
Cuenco, House committee vice chairman on dangerous drugs, said a proposed resolution calling for the establishment of a multilateral extradition treaty has been submitted in the five-day Asean Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) general assembly.
The 26th AIPO general assembly, an annual gathering of Asean parliamentarians, kicked off Monday in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
Once it is approved, Cuenco said the treaty will strengthen legal and law enforcement cooperation in combating transnational crimes, especially drug trafficking.
In the absence of House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Cuenco is heading a nine-man delegation from the Philippines, which will host the 27th AIPO general meeting next year.
“We will no longer have a hard time extraditing drug offenders and financiers once this treaty is approved,” Cuenco told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
AIPO was established on Sept. 2, 1977 to promote closer inter-parliamentary cooperation and understanding among Asean member-countries: Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Brunei Darussalam and Myanmar.
Cuenco, also chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, said the case of Tan is a “classic example” that big-time suspects can never escape from the long arm of the law as long as there is mutual cooperation and understanding between two countries.
The Philippines and Hong Kong Government have an existing extradition treaty.
But for Tan’s case, President Arroyo issued an undertaking assuring the Hong Kong Government to spare Tan from the death penalty if he gets convicted.
The former British protectorate, a special administrative region of China, does not impose the capital punishment.
Since Tan’s arrest last year, it took the Philippine legal team, headed by Justice Undersecretary Ernesto Pineda, 10 months before the alleged shabu kingpin was turned over to the Philippine Government.
Cuenco reiterated that the extradition of Tan was a joint effort of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the National Bureau of Investigation and the House committee on dangerous drugs chaired by Rep. Roque Ablan (Ilocos Norte).
Lawyer Clarence Paul Oaminal, PDEA 7 legal consultant, did the legwork in securing the documentary evidence for Tan’s extradition.
Tan, who hails from Cabanatuan City, is detained at a high-security cell of the new Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.
His Manila-based lawyer, William delos Santos, has denied his client’s participation in the shabu facility in Mandaue City.
(September 24, 2005 issue)
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