The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has axed deputy director general for administration Ismael Fajardo Jr. for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of P6.8 billion worth of shabu.
Derrick Carreon, chief of the PDEA public information office, confirmed Fajardo’s relief Thursday, saying the order had come down on Sept. 13.
Carreon said Fajardo attended a hearing Thursday at the House of Representatives about the P6.8-billion shipment of shabu.
“Right now, director Fajardo is in a hearing in his personal capacity [for] having certain knowledge on the case. He is not there to speak for PDEA,” he said.
Fajardo was a former PDEA chief for the National Capital Region.
During Thursday’s House hearing, PDEA chief Aaron Aquino said he had relieved Fajardo and ordered a lifestyle check on him for his suspected involvement in the smuggling of shabu.
On Aug. 11, PDEA agents seized four magnetic lifters in a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. Aquino said the empty magnetic lifters could have contained a ton of shabu worth P6.8 billion that had already made its way to the streets. He said K9 dogs detected the traces of shabu, but Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña maintained the absence of illegal drugs.
At Thursday’s joint hearing of the committees on dangerous drugs and good government, resigned intelligence officer Jimmy Guban of the Bureau of Customs was cited for contempt for failing to give truthful statements before the panel.
The committees, headed by Representatives Robert Ace Barbers of Surigano del Norte and Jesus Romualdo of Camiguin, said Guban will be held at the House of Representatives after he has served his time in the Senate, where he was detained for disrespecting the senators.
Guban earlier said he and Fajardo have known each other for a long time, as they were classmates at the Philippine College of Criminology and worked together in drug bust operations.
The former BoC intelligence officer has been implicated in the smuggling of a shabu shipment after he admitted to receiving money from dismissed policeman Eduardo Acierto.
Acierto allegedly directed Guban to find a consignee for the shabu shipment.
Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, member of the House dangerous drugs committee, moved to cite Guban in contempt for “not telling the truth in his testimony.”
Barbers said his panel decided to hold Guban in contempt Guban for being disrespectful to members of the committees and for failing to answer questions properly.
“Because of your non-cooperation in these two committees, having uttered conflicting statements, we will ask you to stay in the room prepared by the House of Representatives for resource persons who are cited in contempt after your extended stay in the Senate,” Barbers told Guban.
Barbers said Guban was inconsistent in his answers just like he was at the Senate investigation held earlier.
Earlier, the Senate Blue Ribbon committee cited Guban in contempt for failing to give truthful statements during the panel’s own investigation into the shabu smuggling incident.
“If the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee releases Mr. Guban, he will have an extended stay in the confines of the House of Representatives and he will enjoy as well the contempt being issued by these committees,” Barbers added.
Blue Ribbon committee chairman Senator Richard J. Gordon on Thursday called on the Bureau of Customs to fortify its arsenal as the war on drug smuggling has entered a new level.
Gordon’s committee resumed its investigation into the P4.3 billion worth of shabu from two magnetic lifters inside an abandoned container van at the Manila International Container Port and the suspected P6.8 billion of shabu removed from four similar lifters in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite.
The senator said they were able to establish that the empty magnetic lifters delivered to the CRS Compound warehouse in Cavite contained illegal drugs.
Gordon also said the war on drugs has taken a different tone, not only here but throughout the whole world.
He said illegal drugs now entered the country through heavy equipment, which is more sophisticated.
“We are fighting a new war and we have to have new weapons,” he said.
Gordon came to the conclusion that the lifters in Cavite contained shabu after the warehouse caretaker testified that the seven Chinese, including the two who rented the property, stayed locked inside the warehouse for four hours before leaving on board a black Rav 4 that they parked inside.
The caretaker said he was asked to turn on the lights after the lifters had been placed inside the warehouse before he was instructed to close the door of the warehouse and leave.
As he was closing the door he saw one of the Chinese men holding a grinder approached one of the lifters.