DOJ wraps up probe on P6.4B smuggled shabu case

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice has wrapped its preliminary investigation on the drug trading raps filed against former customs chief Nicanor Faeldon and several other customs officials.

A day after the Office of the Ombudsman announced that it will start investigating the P6.4 billion shabu shipment that slipped through the Bureau of Customs, the DOJ has deemed the case submitted for resolution on Wednesday.

Faeldon and the other officials of the Bureau of Customs are accused of protecting drug smugglers or  violating the Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002.

Faeldon submitted his rejoinder and asked the DOJ to dismiss the complaint as it is a "worthless smear job" against him.

READ: DOJ summons Faeldon over P6.4-B smuggled shabu

The former Customs chief also hit complainant Norman Balquiedra's identity, adding that the later failed to present a "specific or written authorization" from the PDEA.

"[T]his Balquiedra wants this panel to believe that his mere words should be taken as gospel truth, and are enough to trump the constitutional right to liberty of herein respondents," Faeldon's rejoinder reads.

The case against Faeldon stemmed from the complaint filed by the PDEA. Also named as respondent in the case is former Customs Investigation and Intelligence Service chief Neil Anthony Estrella.

Estrella also filed his rejoinder, stressing that Balquiedra "failed to provide the requisite allegations constitutive of 'corruption' or 'incompetence' that must be stated with particularity."

Others named in the complaint are BOC director Milo Maestrecampo; intelligence officers Joel Pinawin and Oliver Valiente; Manila International Container Port district collector lawyer Vincent Phillip Maronilla; Faeldon’s financé, lawyer Jeline Maree Magsuci; and BOC employees Alexandra Ventura, Randolph Cabansag, Dennis Maniego, Dennis Cabildo and John Edillor.

In the same complaint, the PDEA filed illegal drug importation charges under RA 9165 against importers and facilitators of the shabu shipment – Chen Ju Long, Chen Rong Juan, Manny Li, Kenneth Dong, Mark Taguba II, Teejay Marcellana, Eirene May Tatad, Emily Dee, Chen I-Min and Jhu Ming Jyun.

The case stemmed from the raid led by the operatives of the BOC, PDEA, and the National Bureau of Investigation at a warehouse in Valenzuela City. Seized in the operation are 604 kilograms of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.

The shipment was declared as kitchenware, footwear and moldings, as it slipped through the BOC.

The Office of the Ombudsman, for its part, said on Tuesday that it has  has "created a panel to conduct a fact-finding investigation into alleged anomalies in the release of P6.4 billion worth of metamphetamine or 'shabu,' through the greenlane (sic) of Bureau of Customs."

The announcement comes days after President Rodrigo Duterte said that he will leave the investigation of allegations that his son Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and son-in-law Manases "Mans" Carpio are involved in the case to independent agencies.