House panel says at least 18 crates of shabu missing from warehouse

August 3, 2017

The chairman of the House committee on ways and means revealed Wednesday night said  at least 18 crates allegedly containing methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu with an estimated value of P22.5 billion are  missing.

Quirino Rep. Dakila  Cua, the panel chairman, said this  after his committee uncovered in a House hearing  that the personnel of customs broker Ruben Mark Taguba  delivered a total of 23 crates and not  five crates to Hongfei Logistics warehouse in Valenzuela City.

Richard Chen, one of the owners of the warehouse,  allegedly ordered the shipping of five crates containing 604 kilos of shabu from China to Manila.

“The Bureau of Customs only raide five crates. In the document, there are supposedly 23 packages. Where are the 18 crates.  That is potentially tantamount to two tons of shabu,” Cua told reporters in an ambush interview after the 11-hour hearing of the House ways and means committee.

Last May, the BoC seized 604 kilos of shabu from two warehouses in Valenzuela City following a  tip from the General Administration of China Customs.  Authorities found shabu hidden in five metal cylinders. Cua aired strong suspicion that the missing suspected contrabands believed to be shabu could have been disposed by drug lords in the countryside.

He said that the congressmen ordered  the customs officials and asked cooperation of the National Bureau of Investigation and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to find the 18 crates that were declared because the  shabu is in the cylindrical mould of the metal cylinders inside the crates,” said Cua.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the House committee on dangerous drugs, said the intelligence community should work  to recover the remaining 18 crates.

Congressmen have called for the resignation of Nicanor Faeldon as customs commissioners after the huge drug shipment slipped through them in May., But President Rodrigo Duterte said he will wait for the outcome of the probes done by the House and the Senate before deciding to keep Faeldon. DMS