2 Chinese nationals found dead in shabu laboratory murdered, says PDEA

MANILA, Philippines - The two Chinese nationals who were found dead in an underground shabu laboratory in San Miguel, Bulacan Monday were murdered, based on an autopsy conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Derrick Arnold Carreon, spokesman of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said one of the slain Chinese, identified as Wu Xiao Shan, had a broken neck.

Initial investigation showed that Wu was employed by a certain Benson Chua five months ago apparently to run the facility.

However, Carreon said Wu, who did not receive payment from his “employer,” ended up being killed and left to rot in the underground shabu lab.

The second Chinese national, still unidentified, had a broken skull, autopsy showed.

PDEA operatives who raided the shabu lab built underneath a two-story house in Sitio Biga, Barangay Calumpang initially thought that the two Chinese died of suffocation from toxic fumes.

But after finding evidence of fatal injuries, the PDEA now believes that something went afoul in the operation of the shabu lab.

“This indicates possible foul play in the (death) of the two males found in the clandestine laboratory site,” Carreon told The STAR.

He said laboratory personnel were still processing chemicals and other items found in the underground facility, although other things have yet to be removed there.

Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino, chief of PDEA-Special Enforcement Services who led the raid, earlier revealed that the “one-of-a-kind” lab yielded chemicals used in manufacturing shabu as well as semi-processed form of the illegal drug which have yet to be crystallized worth millions of pesos.  – With Ric Sapnu