Manila court denies Taguba bid to remain detained at NBI

A Manila court on Friday directed authorities to bring Customs fixer Mark Ruben Taguba II to the Manila City Jail after it denied his bid to remain under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

During a hearing, Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 ruled that Taguba’s motion lacked merit because the NBI has no mandate to oversee detainees undergoing trial for a criminal case.

That mandate, Montesa said, belongs to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which supervises city and provincial jails.

Taguba, one of the accused in the drug importation case involving the P6.4-billion shabu shipment that was busted in May last year, also failed to convince the court that there were threats to his life.

Taguba’s arraignment was set for February 9. —KBK, GMA News