The National Bureau of Investigation on Thursday filed criminal and administrative charges against former Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña arising from P6.8 billion in drug shipments that slipped past the Bureau of Customs last year under his watch.
In a complaint filed before the Department of Justice, the NBI sought the indictment of Lapeña for violation of Republic Act No. 3019, dereliction of duty and grave misconduct over his failure to act on the drug shipments seized in the Manila International Container Port and the magnetic lifters found in Cavite that reportedly contained one ton of illegal drugs.
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The NBI specifically cited the former BOC chief’s failure to file complaints against the consignees, importers, and brokers of the two magnetic lifters discovered with shabu at the Port of Manila and the four magnetic lifters that slipped past the BOC then found empty in Cavite.
“Despite the lapse of time, Commissioner Lapeña did not file any case against the shippers or consignees of the magnetic lifters, which should have been done upon discovery of the goods by misclassification, since it is very obvious that the declaration made by the shipper is not the same as what were intercepted,” the complaint said.
President Rodrigo Duterte reassigned Lapeña to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority at the height of the shabu smuggling scandal. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency cleared the former customs chief in its own investigation.
The NBI filed the same graft and administrative charges against sacked Port of Manila district collector Vener Baquiran for his failure to declare the two magnetic lifters at the MICP abandoned, and X-ray
Inspection Project head Zsae Carrie de Guzman and two others for allowing the four magnetic lifters in Cavite to pass through the BOC.
In the same complaint, the bureau filed drug charges against 50 other individuals tagged in the importation and release of the shabu shipments.
Among those charged with importation of illegal drugs under Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act) were former PDEA deputy director general for administration Ismael Fajardo Jr., former PNP AIDG OIC senior superintendent Eduardo Acierto, former Customs intelligence agent Jimmy Guban, police inspector Lito Pirote and Joseph Dimayuga. They were also slapped with graft and administrative charges.
Guban earlier admitted his involvement and cover-up of the shipments and has been admitted into the witness protection program. Fajardo, Acierto and Dimayuga, on the other hand, have not surfaced since the controversy broke last year.
The other respondents included Fhonie Chan alias KC Chan, Willin Ong alias Wilson Ong, Jiang Quoqing, Vedasto Baquel, Maria Lagrimas Catipan and Emelyn Luquingan for the MICp shipment as well as Hsu Chung-chun, James Fung, Le Thi Thu Huong, Du Quoc Duong, Migela Santos, Katrina Grace Cuasay and Marina Signapan for the Cavite shipment.
The NBI filed the charges after its fact-finding probe established a link between the MICP shipment and the magnetic lifters seized in Cavite.
“While it is true that in drug-related cases, the illegal drugs are the corpus delicti, we believe that such a requirement has been satisfied in this case,” the complaint said.
“The abandoned magnetic lifters at MICP filled with prohibited drugs and those in GMA [General Mariano Alvarez], Cavite, have the same square openings, color, and structure. The square opening is not a design or enhancement, much less, an ornament of the machines and its presence was made intentionally to mark and identify the spot where the illegal drugs were concealed,” the investigating agency said.
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The NBI added that “distinct similarities and peculiar coincidences” are proof that one syndicate is behind both sets of lifters.
The case stemmed from the discovery of two abandoned magnetic lifters at the Port of Manila in August, which contained 355 kilos of shabu worth P2.4 billion.
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A day after, similar lifters were discovered abandoned at a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite which PDEA believes to have contained 1.6 tons of shabu worth P11 billion.
In August last year, PDEA filed a drug importation complaint against four respondents involved in the 2.4-billion shabu shipment at the MICP.
In December 2018, PDEA also filed criminal complaints against more than 40 respondents over the alleged P11-billion shabu shipment in Cavite.
However, the agency did not include Lapeña in the charge sheet with Director General Aaron Aquino saying their probers found no “direct link” between Lapeña and the two shabu shipments.
The DOJ has already started a preliminary investigation on the PDEA complaints and has set a hearing on Jan. 30 for filing of counter-affidavits by the respondents.
