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Friday, July 21, 2006
NBI, CIDG disagree on which agency gets credit
That the stash of pharmaceutical drugs slipped into the airport last Wednesday was “hot stuff” is an understatement.
Two law enforcement agencies staked out the terminal for hours that day, just to be the first to intercept the subject and the medicines that were reported to be worth some P6 million in the street.
Lawyer Ernesto Maca-bare, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 executive officer, said their operation was legitimate and that they even sent coordination letters to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the airport police.
NBI agents, led by lawyer Jess Manapat, were with operatives from both agencies when they went to the international arrival terminal.
“We had good intelligence information. We even had surveillance photos,” Macabare said. Carlito Ermac, the head of PDEA’s K9 unit at the airport, confirmed this.
He said the NBI will continue to monitor the case, hinting that Carolina Montesclaros should not have been released and that the charges should have been filed under inquest.
“She (Montesclaros) was arrested in the act of smuggling the drugs, wasn’t she?” he said, adding that requests for laboratory examinations can be used to support such complaints.
The results, much like ordinary drug cases, can be reserved for later.
No personality
However, Chief Insp. Rex Derilo, deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), claims that the NBI “has no personality in the case.”
Montesclaros, was released from customs police custody yesterday with no charges filed.
But Lt. Bong Gines, acting commander of the unit in the Port of Mactan, assured that charges will be filed as soon as the paperwork is done.
“We will be filing smuggling charges because the cargo was not declared. A separate case will be filed for violation of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (Bfad) Law,” he said in an interview last night.
The Bfad yesterday sent 10 samples of each type of drug found in the stash to their laboratory in Manila.
“We can’t tell by their physical form whether the drugs are fake or genuine,” said Bfad 7 supervisor Monina Coyoca, adding that the laboratory tests will take at least two weeks.
“The process is tedious,” she explained.
Intercepted
Derilo said it was their operation that led to Montesclaros’ arrest.
And while they did not send similar letters of coordination to any other agency, he clarified that he spoke with Customs Examiner Verlito Ajos, who allowed him and his men to enter the customs zone and, through members of the customs police, apprehend the subject.
He lamented that some people might have the impression that the CIDG’s presence in the airport was unauthorized.
“They (the NBI) were there just to meet somebody. They did not even have any legal personality to participate in the operation. They came 10 minutes before the arrival of the plane,” he alleged.
“We were the ones who intercepted the cargo. They only came in after we arrived. That was our project, we were the ones who intercepted it,” Derilo said.
But NBI Director Medardo de Lemos, in a separate interview, stressed that the presence of his agents was upon his instructions.
“It’s good enough that the cargo was intercepted. Now they are with the Bureau of Customs, the agency that has jurisdiction over matters such as this. Everyone should be happy because we did all our jobs. What’s the problem?” he said.
He refused to further comment.
Barred
Reports of two separate agencies meeting in an anti-smuggling raid sent reporters—all too familiar with rumors of law enforcement agencies in cahoots with customs people supposedly escorting people with questionable items out of the terminal—running to the airport Tuesday.
They were barred entry, however, and were made to wait over an hour at the ID/Pass Control Section after a certain Oscar Rodriguez, said to be the secretary of Airport General Manager Adelberto Yap, demanded that port collector Ernesto Urbano call him personally and clear their entry first.
Urbano, after finally getting reached, sent Deputy Collector for Passenger Services Angelito Gallito to Rodriguez’s office to clear the reporters’ entry.
When the journalists finally entered the airport, no law enforcement agent was around save people from PDEA, the customs police and uniformed airport policemen.
The drugs had already been inventoried and were neatly arranged on a table.
The drugs were placed inside a travel bag that Montesclaros of Talisay City admitted was hers.
They were bought in Bangkok sometime between Saturday evening and Tuesday evening and checked through to Hong Kong, where their Cathay Pacific flight to Cebu awaited.
Scanned
Montesclaros and three companions had gone on a tour.
Customs examiner Ajos, in a separate interview, said the Bureau of Customs also had information that somebody was coming to smuggle drugs into the airport that morning, adding that they were even monitoring the manifest.
“I went through the tube, then went down. I saw Major Derilo (of CIDG) at the arrival area and he said they were there on an operation,” he said.
He confirmed that he and Derilo know each other well, adding that they both come from the same school and are both from Surigao del Sur.
According to Ajos, he assigned two operatives with Derilo’s men to the baggage area and three to the conveyor machine.
When the travel bag passed the scanner, he said, they then watched out for who’d claim it.
“So as not to create a commotion, we invited her to the office of the deputy collector for passenger services and informed her that what she had was illegal,” he said.
Asked about the presence of the NBI, he said: There was no coordination from the NBI. If there was, I am not aware of it.”
Sources, however, said the NBI intentionally kept the Bureau of Customs out of the loop in the operation, opting instead to work with PDEA and the airport police. (KNR/With AIV)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 21, 2006 issue)
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