Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Lawmakers to check on P3.6B shabu ingredient stash
CEBU CITY -- Two years after its seizure in Cebu, a shipment of chemicals used to make both legal and illegal drugs will be checked, amid fears the P3.65-billion stash could be depleted or replaced.
The House committee on dangerous drugs will conduct an ocular inspection to make sure that the 1,740 kilos of pseudo-ephedrine, assessed at P3.65 billion, are still intact.
Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials intercepted the goods in Cebu in 2004, but eventually had to yield to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which took custody of the chemicals, placed in 60 barrels.
Representative Antonio V. Cuenco (Cebu City, south district) said they will bring their own chemist, who will make sure that the pseudo-ephedrine, which was considered high-grade, has not been replaced on the sly nor pilfered.
Cuenco was worried about rumors that the pseudo-ephedrine has disappeared, amid reports that several PDEA workers have been arrested for stealing shabu placed in the agency's safekeeping.
Cuenco said he also asked PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago about the reported disappearance of the pseudo-ephedrine.
Sale
Although Santiago told Cuenco that the report is false, both agreed to conduct the inspection Thursday.
Port of Cebu Customs District Collector Ricardo Belmonte believes that PDEA should return the pseudo-ephedrine to the BOC, so the bureau can sell it to legitimate medicine manufacturers.
"We all know that pseudo-ephedrine is a precursor of shabu. But we also know that it is a good ingredient for medicine. So, why should be destroy it when it can be used for medicine?" Belmonte said.
The pseudo-ephedrine was turned over by then customs district collector Billy Bibit to then PDEA director general Anselmo Avenido, Santiago's predecessor, also in 2004.
Repeated calls made to Avenido yielded no answers, as aides said he was busy.
Deputy Director Reynaldo Esmeralda of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said that he, as then acting director of NBI 7, had initiated the investigation of the illegal shipment.
Transfer
He was surprised when PDEA took over the case and the evidence they NBI had gathered.
Esmeralda said their initial investigation had focused on identifying all those involved.
The consignee was later identified as Coastside Ventures Inc., with incorporators Joebert Cuesta, Rorela Villegas and Ma. Rowena Roldan. At the time, all three were working for then Cebu vice governor John Gregory Osmeña.
Esmeralda said that the PDEA asserted its power and jurisdiction over the case, citing the law that PDEA designated it as the lead agency in the investigation of illegal drugs cases.
"The NBI had to give in to PDEA. The PDEA took all the documents we had gathered and then brought with them to Manila the P3.65-billion pseudo-ephedrine shipment," Esmeralda said.
He added: "It is sad to note that more than two years after the PDEA took over the case, nothing has happened to it."
He recalled that the NBI 7 even referred then vice governor Osmeña's case to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
Danny Gonzales, chief of the Port of Cebu task force on chemical importation, had discovered the illegal shipment and reported it to Capt. Isidro Estrera, the district commander of the Enforcement and Security Service.
Gonzales received P100,000 as his reward from the Cebu City government. (Elias O. Baquero of Sun.Star Cebu)
(September 27, 2006 issue)
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