Pubdate: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 Source: Freeman, The (Philippines) Copyright: 2004 The Freeman Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3437 Website: http://www.thefreeman.com Author: Flor Z. Perolina Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) HOUSE PROBES LOSS OF SHABU A congressional inquiry will try to get to the bottom of the mysterious discrepancy in the amount of shabu police may or may not have confiscated from an alleged drug courier, Rep. Antonio Cuenco said yesterday. Cuenco said the inquiry, which he will propose as holdover chairman of the committee on dangerous drugs at the House of Representatives, can be expected to take place before the month ends. Cuenco said he was forced to seek a congressional inquiry after his own discreet investigation, as well as that by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, failed to shed light on what happened to half of a four-kilo shipment of shabu members of the Maritime Police were believed to have seized from suspected drug courier Willy Solon as he disembarked in Cebu from a ship from Manila. Solon had insisted that he was transporting four kilos of the banned substance but the four Maritime Police personnel who effected the seizure claimed to have confiscated only two kilos. A kilo of shabu has an estimated street value of P2 million. Solon had told Cuenco he was willing to undergo a polygraph test to prove his claim but his lawyer, Noel Archival, later advised him against taking the test, branding it as inconclusive and therefore useless. The four policemen, who similarly assured Cuenco of their own willingness to take the test provided Solon does likewise, later declined to do so on advice of their lawyer. Lawyer Delon Orot wrote the PDEA that his clients, Senior Inspector Roger Mangaoang, PO3 Florito Banilad, PO2 Eric Henry Deluna, and PO1 Napoleon Taneo, will only take the polygraph tests if Solon commits his allegations on paper in a sworn statement and takes the same test ahead of the policemen. Given these developments, Cuenco said he believes the only way to determine who is telling the truth and find out if two kilos of shabu are really missing or not is for the House to step into the picture and conduct the inquiry. Cuenco said Solon may also reveal in the inquiry who had sent him to Cebu to deliver the shabu. Solon had initially said he was asked to make the delivery by a certain Archua to a resident of Labangon in Cebu City. In his talks with Solon, Cuenco said the suspect claimed the police did not immediately report his arrest but tried to parlay his freedom with a monetary demand to Archua by telephone from two pension houses to where he was taken. When the alleged negotiations fell through, the arrest was announced the following day and Solon was presented to media, or so he claimed. Cuenco admitted, however, that he foresees a problem arising from the insistence of Solon's lawyer Archival that his client in the first place never had any shabu with him at the time of his arrest last July 28. PDEA regional director Gaudencio Pagaling yesterday explained his delay in filing a case against the four policemen, saying he is just waiting for the action of city prosecutors. If prosecutors drop the case against Solon, Pagaling said, that will be the time he will file a case against the police for bungling their case. Pagaling said that instead of coordinating with his office, the arresting officers informed his office of the arrest only 13 hours later, a crucial lapse of time that tended to corroborate the contention of Solon that he was first brought to two pension houses from where the alleged negotiations for the suspect's release reportedly took place. Pagaling did not say why he still has to wait for the action of prosecutors before filing his own case against the Maritime Police officers.