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Friday, October 01, 2004
Shabu lab financier captured in Hong Kong
By Garry Cabotaje and Rose O. Versoza
CEBU CITY -- The alleged financier of the mega shabu laboratory in Mandaue City was arrested in Hong Kong Thursday morning.
He was identified as Calvin de Jesus Tan alias Lin Chui Wi, Joey Ng and Joey Lin, 29. His listed address is 2204-A Escolta Twin Tower, Manila.
Tan's name surfaced as the alleged Hong Kong-based contact of Hung Chin Chang, one of the arrested 11 suspects in Barangay Umapad, said the Anti-Illegal Special Operations Task Force (Aidsotf).
He was said to have given P5 million to another arrested suspect, Joseph Yu, to fund the shabu laboratory.
Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon, Aidsotf chief, who confirmed Tan's arrest, said they still have to establish if indeed Tan is mastermind of what has been described as the biggest shabu laboratory in Southeast Asia.
Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan Jr., chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs and House oversight committee, said three of the suspects-Hung, Yu and Allan Yap Garcia-already confessed to them Tan's role.
Tan was charged in court yesterday on the basis of the joint affidavit of Ablan and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 Chief Amado Marquez.
"If you call the financier and the one who gives orders as the mastermind, then he is the mastermind," said Ablan, who is scheduled to go to Hong Kong to coordinate with the police authorities there.
Rep. Antonio Cuenco said Tan can be extradited to the Philippines by filing a petition before the Hong Kong court.
The Philippines and China signed an extradition treaty this year.
"It will take a lot of paperwork and time, but I am sure he can be extradited because the treaty was specific about drug smuggling," Cuenco told Sun.Star in a mobile interview Thursday night.
The Mandaue City Prosecutor's Office filed Thursday an amended information before the Regional Trial Court to include Tan as one among the accused in the case for manufacture of shabu under Republic Act 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Named in the original information are Yu, 41; Hung, 40; Siew Kin Weng, 25; Liew Kam Song, 40; Lin Li Ku, 35; Bao Xiafu, 35; Wu Tiao Yi, 33; Tao Fei, 34; Liu Bo, 31; Garcia, 33; and Joseph Lopez, 33.
Ablan said Tan, a Chinese-Filipino, is a known drug personality in Manila.
The congressman is not certain, though, whether Tan has a pending case or an arrest warrant because he uses several aliases.
Yu told them that Tan was the one who gave them P5 million which was deposited in the Allied Bank Gorordo Branch in Cebu City, Ablan said.
Cuenco was also present when Yu made the disclosure.
Garcia also told Ablan and Marquez that Tan is the "source of their money." Lawyer Paul Oaminal, Mandaue City Jail Warden Jose Moring and ABS-CBN news reporter Ramil Ayuman were present during Garcia's confession.
For his part, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 Chief Reynaldo Esmeralda said a local Chinese-Filipino trader may have a hand in the establishment of the shabu lab.
The businessman, who reportedly lives in a posh subdivision, was frequently seen in the company of Garcia months before the lab operations started, Esmeralda said.
Garcia of Labangon, Cebu City, has been identified as the group's purchaser who could speak Chinese well.
Tan's arrest came six days after government agents swooped down on the group's shabu lab in Umapad, Mandaue City.
Initial information received by the Aidsotf said Tan was born in Cabanatuan City on Nov. 8, 1974.
But De Leon, PNP deputy director general, said they have to wait for an official report, including the background of Tan, from Hong Kong authorities.
De Leon, who joined the PNP top brass in inspecting the shabu lab a day after the Sept. 24 raid, said Tan's name cropped up after lawmen interrogated Hung hours after the raid.
Hung, a British national who also goes by the name Simon Lao and Andy Ang, is one of the 11 arrested shabu makers and has been tagged as the group leader.
Reports said Tan's name was registered as among the group's contacts in the phone book of Hung's seized cellular phone.
"But since Hong Kong is already beyond our jurisdiction, we really have to coordinate with them. We are still waiting for an official report," said de Leon, also head of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime (PCTC).
The PCTC, Malacaņang-created multi-agency office, is the Philippine contribution to the Association of Southeast Asia National Police to fight crimes that cross national borders.
Meanwhile, members of the House committee on dangerous drugs, led by Ablan, visited the shabu laboratory in Umapad.
"This is the biggest in Asia. I have seen the equipment, finished and unfinished. There are more there and considering that it only started this month," said Ablan.
Ablan also lambasted the PNP for the "loose security" in the premises of the warehouse compound, which still holds the seized 675 kilograms of shabu and drug-making equipment.
"We are going to have this investigated in the interest of amendments to the law, to give more teeth to the anti-dangerous drugs law, to increase penalties and to plug loopholes if there are any," he said.
As for the possible liabilities of local officials, Ablan said this is already another matter, which the committee will not be delving into.
Still, Ablan questioned why Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano still had to write to Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes to complain about his being kept in the dark on the matter.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas is looking to the incident.
(October 1, 2004 issue)
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