Senate orders arrest of Richard Tan, Manny Li for contempt

Sen. Richard Gordon grills resource persons at the resumption of the Senate hearing on the 6.4 billion pesos shabu shipment seized by the Bureau of Customs. INQUIRER / Grig C. Montegrande

The Senate ordered the arrest of Richard Tan and Manny Li after the blue ribbon committee decided to hold them in contempt for supposedly lying during the hearing on the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China.

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III approved on Wednesday the contempt order signed by committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon.

Moments after the hearing, Tan and Li were put under the custody of the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA), according to a Radyo Inquirer 990 AM report.

In the order, it said they were held in contempt for “testifying falsely and evasively before the Committee on August 9, 2017 and thereby delaying, impeding and obstructing the inquiry into the P6.4 billion worth of shabu shipment from China.”

Tan and Li appeared for the first time in the hearing after several inquiries conducted by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Tan owns Hong Fei Logistics. The shipment of 605 kilograms shabu was delivered to Hong Fei’s warehouse after it went past the inspection of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) last May 24.

Li, meanwhile, brokered the delivery of the illegal shipment.