Senator Richard Gordon on Tuesday asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to help in the Blue Ribbon Committee’s investigation of the importation of electronic magnetic lifters stuffed with shabu. He made the request even as Rep. Robert Ace Barbers praised the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for identifying four members of the National Police involved in the alleged smuggling of P6.8 billion worth of shabu.
“I commend PDEA for uncovering and bringing into light these scalawags. Honestly, it did not come as a shock as I am certain that there are more of them out there,” said Barbers, chairman of the House committee on drugs.
“From the previous hearings of both the Senate and the House, we were able to expose the skeletons in the closet.”
In a letter dated Sept. 24, Gordon asked Foreign Affairs Secretary Allan Peter Cayetano for assistance from the Philippine Embassy and Consulate in China and Hong Kong in coordinating with pertinent Chinese authorities.
He said they would gather information about KC Chan, a.k.a Chan Fhonie or Chan Yee Wah Albert, and Fung Ping Cheung, a.k.a. James Fong. Chan is reportedly a resident of Shenzhen City, China, while Fung is a holder of a British passport issued in Hong Kong.
“In this regard, we would appreciate the assistance of the Philippine Embassy and Consulate in China and Hong Kong, in coordinating with the appropriate authorities in their respective jurisdictions, to gather any pertinent information on any official action, investigation or cooperation with local authorities that may have undertaken regarding the above-mentioned individuals including criminal records, if any,” Gordon said in his letter.
“The PDEA seems to have arrived at the same conclusion that we have”•that international drug syndicates, mostly run by Chinese, are operating in our country.”
Gordon said it was also possible that Andy Cheng, the Hong Kong man they were looking for, who had been tagged as the local mastermind behind the shipment in Cavite, was also the man they were after.
“The PDEA can use any information that may come out in our investigation to strengthen cases they file to ensure that the perpetrators will be nailed,” Gordon said in the wake of reports that the alleged Chinese local mastermind was now the focus of the PDEA’s investigation.
The Blue Ribbon Committee, which Gordon heads, is investigating the importation to the Philippines, through the Bureau of Customs, of magnetic lifters containing drugs.
A joint operative of Customs and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency seized an abandoned container at the Manila International Container Terminal. Inside were two electronic magnetic lifters found to have 355 kilos of shabu concealed inside them.
Similar magnetic lifters were also discovered in a warehouse in Cavite with indications that they were also used to store drugs.
To further shed light on the operation of the syndicate smuggling illegal drugs in the country, Gordon also asked Cayetano to direct the Philippine Embassies in Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur to contact the shipper companies used to transport the magnetic lifters to the Philippines to get information about the said shipments. With Maricel V. Cruz