Navy insists on Marcelino’s custody

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Navy should have custody of Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, an official reiterated yesterday.

Col. Edgard Arevalo, spokesman for the Navy, said Marcelino is an active military officer and should therefore be subject to military law.

“Our basis is not only his security but the fact that he is a military personnel,” Arevalo said in an interview.

Marcelino is being held at the Quezon City jail annex at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.

Earlier, the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG) opposed a proposal of the Department of Justice to transfer Marcelino to another detention facility while undergoing preliminary investigation on drug charges.

The Navy requested custody of Marcelino last month, saying he should be confined in a military-controlled facility.

It cited the need to ensure Marcelino’s security pending result of the investigation of his case.

 PNP-AIDG chief Senior Superintendent Manolo Ozaeta, however, said allowing the transfer of Marcelino to the custody of the Navy or the National Bureau of Investigation would “set a bad precedent and open the floodgates for similar requests from military personnel who are in jail.”

Ozaeta believes that keeping Marcelino at a Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility would prevent public perception that the Marine officer is receiving special treatment while in detention.

Marcelino, a former official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and his Chinese interpreter Yan Yi Shou were arrested in a raid on a shabu storage facility in Manila last month.

Authorities seized some 76 kilos of shabu worth P383 million during the operation.

Marcelino claimed that he was on a mission with the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at the time of his arrest. He claimed he had nothing to do with the drug ring.