Duterte orders Customs intelligence exec nabbed

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the arrest of Bureau of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service officer Jimmy Guban, who has been linked to the smuggling of shabu in the country.

Duterte said he told Philippine National Police chief Director Genera Oscar Albayalde to arrest Guban but bring him to the National Bureau of Investigation for custody. He said the PNP was mentioned in the investigation conducted on Guban.

“Kaya iyang si Guban pinapa-aresto ko. Sabi ko, right after the session, you arrest him,” Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang on Wednesday.

“Sabi ni Albayalde, what ground? I said, just arrest him, bring him to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation). Huwag kayo makialam’ kasi kayo, namention kayo diyan sa investigation. Bring him to the NBI,” he added.

It was Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, who first linked Guban to the alleged smuggling of billions of pesos worth of shabu.

Gordon said he was told by Guban's subordinate in Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, Gorgonio Necessario, that Guban knew how to open the magnetic lifters that contained shabu.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, meanwhile, said they would not hand Guban to PNP or NBI without any arrest warrant.

"No. He is under detention of the Blue Ribbon Committee," Sotto said in a text message to GMA News Online when asked on the matter.

Guban was cited in contempt by the Blue Ribbon Committee for allegedly lying during the hearing.

In a Senate inquiry, Guban said former Senior Superintendent Eduardo Acierto of supposedly informed him about the entry of magnetic lifters containing shabu.

Duterte ordered Guban's arrested on the same day that a joint House committee resumed its inquiry on the P6.8 billion worth of shabu smuggled into the country via magnetic lifters.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on August 8 found empty magnetic lifters at a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez. The hollow lifters, according to the PDEA, contained shabu before the authorities seized them. 

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino has maintained that the lifters in Cavite used to contain drugs because they were similar to the lifters that contained the 500 kilograms or P3.4 billion worth of shabu seized at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) on August 7.

K9 dogs also sat down when they smelled the empty magnetic lifters, indicating that the lifters had  contained illegal drugs.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña initially denied that the empty magnetic lifters nabbed in Cavite contained shabu.

Lapeña on Thursday changed his tune after hearing testimony at the House inquiry.

The President was focused on Guban, not Lapeña.

“Tawagan mo nga kung naaresto na. Naaresto na? P— ina. Dalhin mo doon sa Cavite, ihulog mo. Siya (Guban) ang nagpapasok [ng shabu], siya ang nag-fake ng ID. Alam mo, if you do that every day, p— ina, ginagawa mo akong gago eh. ‘Pag ganon na lang, I would rather resign,” Duterte said.

Duterte earlier said that the PDEA’s claim that the magnetic lifters found in Cavite contained shabu were pure speculation.

The President issued the order on the same day that the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs resumed its inquiry on the P6.8 billion worth of shabu smuggled into the country via magnetic lifters.

Sought for details, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he has yet to ask the NBI if there is a subsisting arrest warrant, or if there is a ground for warrantless arrest, against Guban.

"No one has talked to me about it yet," he said. — with Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/NB/RSJ, GMA News