AFTER SHABU LAB DISCOVERRY
La Union town suffers image problem
By Yolanda Sotelo-Fuertes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:04:00 08/06/2008
Filed Under: Illegal drugs
NAGUILIAN, La Union, Philippines -- This town has been reeling from the negative publicity generated by the recent discovery of a shabu laboratory in the village of Binmotobot here, but residents are thankful that the illegal activity was discovered before tons of shabu could be produced there.
"To have an illegal drugs laboratory in Naguilian was really bad, but it was good that the activities were already exposed," Mayor Abraham Rimando said.
Police said the chemicals found last July at a compound could produce at least 180,000 kilograms of shabu. A kilo of shabu would fetch P6 million, police said.
"Imagine if the laboratory was not discovered? Imagine how much shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) would have been manufactured?" Rimando said.
A farming community, Naguilian (population: 45,232) is one of the 19 towns in La Union.
How the laboratory was discovered was nothing out of the ordinary, Rimando said.
The team he formed was made up of personnel from the town government and policemen who regularly inspected local establishments.
The team, he said, went to Binmotobot to inspect what was reported to be a piggery.
"There was a report that foul smell was coming out of the establishment, so the team went to inspect it. The inspection was also in the course of assessing establishments for business tax purposes," he said.
The compound where the laboratory was found was ideal for setting up an illegal business. It is located 12 kilometers from the highway through roads that traverse forested villages. Trees surround the compound and houses there are few. At least 1,000 residents live in the village.
Rimando said the stench that came from the laboratory gave away the illegal drug operations. There were also reports that trees were dying or had died in the area.
The inspection was conducted in the afternoon of July 9, where the team found equipment and chemicals used to produce shabu.
Local officials decided that they needed the help of the provincial police, which applied for a search warrant and raided the compound on the night of July 9.
"Still, we were surprised by the extent of [operations of] the laboratory," Rimando said. "We thought it was just a small laboratory, maybe with production of merely a hundred kilos or less. We did not expect that it was a laboratory which could produce tons of shabu."
Superintendent Noli Taliño, La Union police director, said the first raid on July 9 yielded six truckloads of chemicals and equipment, while another operation the following day generated two truckloads.
Rimando said he hoped that the case against those responsible for the laboratory's operation would be expedited.
The arraignment of Dante Tomas Palaganas and Ruperto Tangalin, identified as caretakers of the compound, before the regional trial court in Bauang town on Monday was deferred.
Prosecutors Gaudencio Valdez Jr. and Manuel Dulnuan asked the court to give them time to finish the investigation on other respondents that included four policemen, six Chinese and their three Filipino cohorts.
The Naguilian police filed the case against Palaganas and Tangalin but the police's Task Force Binmotobot amended the complaint to include the other suspects.
A second complaint filed with the provincial prosecutor's office were against Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, Dagupan City police chief; PO3 Joey Abang; PO2 Walter Banan; PO1 Rodolfo Damian; lot owner Eusebio Tangalin; and the laboratory's suspected financier, Joselito Artuz alias George Cordero of Marilao, Bulacan. Also charged were six Chinese, who were not identified in the complaint.
The court said the deferment would enable the prosecutors to "study and evaluate intelligently the evidence for the prosecution."
Palaganas and Tangalin did not object to the postponement. Two priests -- Erasmo Soriano of the Saint Joseph the Worker Parish in Bauang town and Nolan Nabua of the San Gabriel Archangel Parish in San Gabriel town -- and several nuns were present during the court's session on Monday.
Lawyer Aida Dizon appeared as counsel for Palaganas but the accused denied engaging Dizon's services as a lawyer. The Philippine Daily Inquirer learned that Dizon visited Palaganas twice at the La Union provincial jail.
Dizon wanted to file a motion for a judicial determination of probable cause and to defer the arraignment but her statements were stricken off the record after Palaganas refused to accept her as his counsel.
Palaganas and Tangalin said they both wanted lawyer Manolito Hidalgo to represent them. The court appointed Hidalgo and lawyer Jose Quezada as their counsels.
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