Immigration to confirm identity of 'Jacky Co' who fled amid P1.8-billion shabu case

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:29 p.m.) — The Bureau of Immigration is yet to confirm the identity of Zhijian Xu who was reported to have fled the country despite being tagged in the P1.8-billion illegal narcotics case.

The STAR quoted Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval in a report as saying that there are “found four individuals with the name Zhijian Xu, but none of them matched the description given by Senator Lacson in his privilege speech.”

Sandoval also added that none of the four had a criminal record.

A court may issue a hold departure order with a warrant of arrest against individuals accused in the smuggling of one of the largest shipments of shabu into the Philippines in recent record.

Guevarra: Xu Zhijian not on Interpol list

Lacson, in his speech Wednesday, pointed to Xu as the person behind the P1.8-billion shabu smuggled last March. He questioned how Xu, supposedly on the watchlist of the International Criminal Police Organization or Interpol, was able to slip in and out the country.

The senator said that the Chinese national left Manila on April 3 on a Philippine Airlines flight to Vietnam.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra explained that the Consul General of China said that a certain Zhijian Xu has a pending case in China, but he is not the one on the Interpol watchlist.

The Interpol National Central Bureau Manila also confirmed this, the Justice chief said. The Bureau of Immigration is under the Department of Justice.

Guevarra added that contrary to Lacson’s remark, immigration records showed that a certain Zhijian Xu left the country on March 20, and not on April 3.

“As there was no existing hold-departure order against the said person, nor any Interpol alert, during that time, the BI allowed the said person to depart,” he added.

Criminal complaints

Sandoval also said that “Jacky Co,” said to be Xu’s alias, also “turned out to be a common name.”

The Immigration spokesperson, however, said: “We would ask the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and intelligence agencies for information on Co’s true identity.”

The PDEA on Friday filed drug importation raps against Xu and 16 others over the shabu smuggled last March.

The Justice chief said that the DOJ will direct the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the illegal drug importation case.  — Kristine Joy Patag with reports from The STAR/Emmanuel Tupas and Evelyn Macairan