Taguba, two others file counter affidavits in P6.4-B shabu shipment case

Customs fixer Mark Taguba and two others submitted on Monday their counter affidavits to the criminal complaint filed against them in connection with the P6.4-billion shabu shipment that slipped past the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

The affidavits were filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Taguba, customs broker Teejay Marcellana and businessman Chen Ju Long—also known as Richard Tan and Richard Chen—filed and subscribed to their respective counter affidavits against a complaint of importing dangerous drugs filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Taguba is also facing a separate complaint for practicing the profession of a Customs broker without the property authority to do so.

Another respondent to the case, the caretaker of a warehouse were the shabu shipment was discovered, Fidel Anoche Dee, failed to submit his counter affidavit during the preliminary investigation hearing, prompting the DOJ investigating panel to consider the codefendant as having waived his right to submit a written defense.

The panel is composed of Assistant State Prosecutors Aristotle Reyes, Michael John Humarang and Rodan Parrocha.

The DOJ  has decided to consolidate the NBI complaint and the complaint filed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) last week.

Reyes said the complaints must be consolidated since both stemmed from similar sets of facts with common parties and issues involved.

Among those charged by the PDEA were former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and 11 other BOC officials.

Faeldon and his former subordinates were charged with graft, conspiring to import illegal drugs, coddling drug traffickers under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, obstruction of justice under Presidential Decree 1829, and negligence and tolerance under Article 208 of the Revised Penal Code.

Taguba, Marcellana and Chen were also included in the PDEA complaint.

The illegal shipment containing 602.279 kilos of shabu was discovered on May 26 when the BOC and the NBI raided Chen's Hongfei Logistics warehouse in Valenzuela City.

The bust compelled the Senate and the House of Representatives to conduct separate inquiries into the controversy, which prompted Faeldon to resign amid allegations he pocketed grease money while in office.

Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-in-law Mans Carpio were also implicated by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV in the drug smuggling mess, a charge the two denied when they faced the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on September 7. — VDS, GMA News