THE Justice department has asked a court in Manila to issue a hold-departure order against Marine Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino over his P380-million drug case.
The department urged the court to issue the order against Marcelino and Yan Yi Shou, his co-accused, to prevent them from flying to another country to avoid prosecution.
“The prosecution dreads and believes that both accused may leave the country to escape prosecution and avoid facing up to their liability,” the department said in its appeal.
Marcelino on Tuesday surrendered to the Provost Marshal of the Armed Forces of the Philippines days after a local court ordered him arrested in connection with a case linking him to the operation of a shabu laboratory in Manila.
The Justice department’s prosecutors said it was necessary to prevent the two accused from escaping because they had yet to be arraigned.
Marcelino and Yan were ordered arrested by Manila RTC Branch 49 on Dec. 22 for possession of illegal drugs.
They had earlier denied the charges against them during a preliminary investigation at the Justice department.
They had also questioned their arrest during a joint Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Philippine National Police operation in Sta. Cruz, Manila, in January last year and their indictment by the department.
Marcelino claimed that they were inside the seized shabu laboratory with nearly 77 kilograms of shabu worth P380 million only because they were conducting an intelligence operation at the time.
He claimed he was in the apartment for a covert surveillance operation as a member of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.