Friday, January 12, 2007 Local politician ‘interceded’
A SCION of a prominent political clan in Cebu allegedly interceded in the 2004 seizure of the P3.65-billion shipment of pseudoephedrine, a shabu precursor, by calling two ranking officers of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
An affidavit issued by former PDEA 7 director Gaudencio Pagaling said he got a phone call from the man, whom authorities described as a young Cebu politician, the same day the Bureau of Customs confiscated 60 drums or 1,710 kilograms of pseudoepherine on March 5, 2004.
Two PDEA officers also executed a joint-affidavit detailing the interception of the shipment and the alleged involvement of local contacts in Cebu.
In a press conference, visiting PDEA Director-General Dionisio Santiago and lawyer Reynaldo Esmeralda, National Bureau of Investigation deputy director for regional operations services, were both confident that illegal importation and conspiracy cases will be filed against these local contacts this month.
Santiago, a former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, said the PDEA will review the affidavits in a final case conference with Esmeralda next week.
They told Rep. Antonio Cuenco, House committee co-chairman on dangerous drugs, that the case might be filed in time for the resumption of the Lower House’ legislative work this month.
Pagaling’s caller allegedly asked him for a PDEA clearance of the shipment, which was consigned to a certain Mike Cummings of Coastside Venture Inc. at Hernan Cortes St., Mandaue City.
Pagaling, in turn, referred him to Supt. Primo Golingay who was then the director of the PDEA Compliance Service, an office that issues clearance for controlled chemicals, his affidavit said.
Chemical analysis
On March 17, the PDEA Laboratory Service, then headed by Chief Insp. Leslie Maala, conducted a chemical analysis on the confiscated items, whose samples were also submitted to the PNP 7 Crime Laboratory in Cebu City for a confirmatory test.
The affidavit stated that Maala also received a call from the same person through her mobile phone, asking her to delay the results of the chemical analysis.
Maala reportedly answered the call in the presence of Senior Supt. Ager P. Ontog Jr., former acting chief of the PDEA intelligence and investigation service, and Chief Insp. Prospero Bona.
Harassed
“Maala cried during the conversation because she felt harassed. She left for the US afterwards,” Paga-ling’s affidavit read. The joint-affidavit of PO2 Rey Robert S. Villarete and PO2 Jude P. Udtohan, both PDEA operatives, also mentioned Cummings, seven other local names, John and Jane Does, whom PDEA believed may have had a hand in the pseudoephedrine shipment.
They said the young politician, whom Pagaling identified in his affidavit, allegedly met two foreigners and another unidentified Caucasian male at a restaurant inside a hotel in Barangay Guadalupe on Feb. 20, 2004.
The foreigners, who were tagged as international organizers of the pseudoephedrine shipment, arrived at the Mactan airport aboard Philippine Airlines flight 863 two days earlier.
The newly issued affidavits seemed to have affirmed the information of agent Mark Kelly of Australian Federal Police, who mentioned a Cebu politician’s name in his report.
Kelly visited Manila last November upon the invitation of the PDEA and provided substantial information about the chemical’s illegal importation.
A close-up photo of the politician and other foreign organizers also appeared in Kelly’s power point presentation during a briefing at the PDEA headquarters in Quezon City.
Imprisonment
Two of the alleged organizers were Australians Leslie James Norton, 40, and Rodney Allan James, 53 who were already sentenced to five and three years’ imprisonment, respectively, by the Australian Supreme Court for attempting to smuggle pseudoephedrine.
Kelly also identified three other foreigners as George Michael Kessel, 44, Phillip Sydney Player, 60, and aircraft pilot James Stewart Wrothwell, 26.
He said the illegal cargo was to be transported from Cebu to Australia, its final destination, via a small aircraft identified as a Beech Queen Air-VH-TWG. (GC)
