The Senate Blue Ribbon committee will recommend criminal charges against police and Customs officials implicated in the multi-billion-peso shabu smuggling scandal at the Bureau of Customs.
READ: ‘Cleansing’ set at Customs
Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the committee, said the officials could be liable under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Dangerous Drugs Act.
These include former senior superintendent Eduardo Acierto, former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Ismael Fajardo Jr., and Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service officer Jimmy Guna, Gordon said.
At the same time, Gordon said, outgoing Customs chief Isidro Lapeña may also be held liable because he was in charge when the smuggling took place.
“Under the doctrine of command responsibility, he was in charge,” Gordon said in Filipino. “He should answer for it because it happened under his watch.”
President Rodrigo Duterte last week reassigned Lapeña to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, even before the congressional hearings were done.
Meanwhile, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers on Sunday urged former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban to cooperate with the government and provide more information on the shipment of shabu, with a value estimated at P11 billion.
Barbers, committee on dangerous drugs chairperson, called on Guban to identify two other officials who could have conspired to release the illegal drugs at the Manila International Container Port in July.
“Guban is a very vital witness. The information he had given us is not yet enough to be able to identify others behind the P11 billion worth of shabu,” he said.
During the Oct. 23 hearing, Guban admitted being involved in the entry of four magnetic lifters that contained shabu, which slipped past the Bureau of Customs.
Barbers said Guban should come up with a full account of his participation, along with Acierto and Fajardo.