GOING AFTER ‘BIG FISHES’ Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV arrives at the Department of Justice on Wednesday with several copies of this 47-page complaint for drug smuggling and graft. —Marianne Bermudez
MANILA, Philippines — Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday filed criminal complaints against two more members of the Duterte family, as well as several other public officials and private individuals, this time over a massive shipment of illegal drugs intercepted in 2017.
In a 47-page complaint submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Trillanes accused Davao Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte; lawyer Manases Carpio, the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte; and former Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon of drug smuggling and graft.
Also named respondents in the complaint are incumbent Davao City Councilor Nilo Abellera Jr., former Davao City Intelligence Service Unit chief Allen Capuyan, former BOC employees Teofilo Joseph Bacud and Neil Anthony Estrella, businessmen Pompey Perez and Charlie Tan, and a certain Nanie Coronacion.
READ: Rep. Duterte welcomes drug smuggling case, maintains innocence
On July 5, Trillanes lodged a plunder complaint against former President Rodrigo Duterte for allegedly using his position as mayor and later as president to award public works contracts worth P6.6 billion to “unqualified” companies owned by Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go’s father and half brother.
Go, his father, Deciderio Lim Go, and his half brother, Alfred Armero Go, were also named as Duterte’s co-respondents in the complaint.
READ: Trillanes to file more complaints vs Duterte, Go
‘Sundalong kanin’
Sought for comment, Pulong Duterte said he “welcomed” the complaint since he could now respond to the allegations “before the court and not before the court of Facebook and in the mind of a crazy sundalong kanin (a make-believe soldier).
The lawmaker was apparently poking fun at Trillanes being a former Navy officer.
“This move will allow us to address these accusations through the proper legal channels, ensuring that the truth will prevail,” he said. “I have always maintained my innocence and I am confident that the judicial process will clear my name.”
Pulong, the eldest son of former President Duterte, said he was confident the case would also go the same way as the first time Trillanes accused him of ties to the Chinese drug triad in 2017.
Duterte, who was the Davao City vice mayor at the time, and Bong Go were then dared by Trillanes to show their backs to the public to prove they don’t have a “dragon tattoo” symbolizing their links to the syndicate.
“I am not surprised who Mr. Trillanes has once again fooled to fund this desperate attempt to peddle this baseless story to the Filipino people,” Duterte said. “I also look forward to the resolution of the libel cases I filed against him.”
‘Big fishes’
As to new filings on Wednesday, Trillanes said the DOJ would now have an opportunity to investigate the “big fishes” in the drug trade who had long evaded prosecution.
The complaint largely cited the findings of a Senate inquiry led by then Sen. Richard Gordon in 2017 that looked into the illegal drug shipment from China.
“The conspiracy to import the subject shipment from China to the Philippines necessitated the crucial acts of the ‘persons from the inside’—the corrupt customs officials, and more critically, the very powerful ‘players’ who used their influence to consummate this unlawful crime of importation of billions of pesos worth of dangerous drugs to the country,” Trillanes said.
On May 26, 2017, agents of the BOC, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency raided warehouses in Valenzuela City and found 605 kilos of high-grade “shabu” (crystal meth) estimated to be worth P6.4 billion.
In the course of the Senate inquiry, it was discovered that the shipment bypassed the BOC’s alert system and ended up in the “green lane” where imported goods were not required to undergo physical inspection and document verification.
“The spate of hearings in the Senate unraveled that at the center of the conspiracy to commit this grand outlawry was a Filipino customs broker and trucking proprietor named Mark Ruben Taguba II. Taguba was able to facilitate the entry of goods without having to go through the rigorous process of examination or inspection in the BOC,” Trillanes said in the complaint.
Taguba could not have done it on his own, he said, and “this is where the ‘Davao Group’ enters the picture.”
The ex-senator alleged that Taguba was the real broker of the contraband from China while Coronacion, who was supposedly familiar with BOC officials, was responsible for introducing him to the Davao Group.
‘No longer in control’
Perez was tagged as Pulong Duterte’s “handler” who facilitated all “remittances,” transactions and communications between Duterte and Coronacion, while Abellera allegedly served as the “bagman” between either Coronacion or Taguba and Duterte.
“Most crucially, respondents Pulong Duterte and Mans Carpio, through their political influence, allowed the shipment to enter the country. Respondent Pulong Duterte needed only to call collector Jet Maronilla of the Bureau of Customs to facilitate clearance of their shipment without the danger of being flagged or alerted; in the case of Respondent Carpio, to personally pay a visit to the Office of the Commissioner, BOC,” Trillanes claimed.
Asked in an interview with reporters why he filed the complaint only now, Trillanes said it was because the Dutertes have “lost control of the judiciary.”
“Just to be clear, our judiciary is, by and large, functioning and fair except in some instances when the Dutertes have an interest in a case. They try to manipulate the law and the judiciary to be in their favor and protect them,” Trillanes said.
Earlier cases junked
The DOJ earlier lost an earlier case for drug importation filed against nine suspects—including Taguba and Teejay Marcellana—in connection with the intercepted drugs.
In November 2017, Valenzuela Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 171 Judge Nena Santos dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction, saying the passage of the shipment happened in Manila.
The government then refiled the charges in Manila, and later filed another case against the suspects, this time for drug transportation and delivery, again in the Valenzuela RTC.
In 2018, the Valenzuela RTC granted the motions filed by Taguba, Marcellana and Chen Julong seeking the dismissal of the charges of drug transportation and delivery.
The judge then ruled that the prosecutors had only resorted to “forum shopping.” —with a report from Krixia Subingsubing