DOJ consolidates NBI, PDEA complaints in shabu in magnetic lifters case

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has consolidated three complaints filed in connection with the multibillion-peso shabu shipments concealed in magnetic lifters discovered in Manila and Cavite last year.

In a Tuesday order made public Wednesday, prosecutors granted the National Bureau of Investigation's (NBI) request for their complaint, filed last week, to be consolidated with two complaints filed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in August and December 2018.

All three complaints accuse several of their respondents of illegal drug importation. Graft charges were present in the second and third. But only the NBI's complaint tagged former Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña for graft, grave misconduct and dereliction of duty for failing to initiate legal action against those involved in the smuggling.

The cases involve two magnetic lifters hiding 355 kilograms of shabu worth P2.4 billion that were discovered at the Manila International Container Port last August 7, and four empty lifters found in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite the following day.

The PDEA believes the empty lifters contained 1,618 kilos, or worth P11 billion, of the illegal drug.

The complaints were consolidated to "avoid duplicity and/or possible conflicting resolutions over the same subject/incidents, i.e. the shipment/importation of seix magnetic lifters from Malaysia and Vietnam to Manila, and in the interest of justice," the DOJ said.

The next hearing on the preliminary investigation of the consolidated complaints has been set for February 11, where the respondents, including Lapeña, are expected to submit their answers to the charges.

The more than 40 respondents to the consolidated complaints include Senior Superintendent Eduardo Paderon Acierto, ex-PDEA deputy director general for administration Ismael Gonzales Fajardo Jr., former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban -- who is now under witness protection -- and some Chinese nationals.

The discovery of the six magnetic lifters in Manila and Cavite came more than a year after authorities seized P6.4-billion worth of shabu in Valenzuela City, leading to the filing of drug smuggling charges against several personalities before the courts. —NB, GMA news