‘Bato’ seeks turn to grill House probe witness Guban

Jimmy Guban. —Photo from HREP

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa plans to summon a former customs intelligence officer to a separate Senate inquiry into allegations he made during a House of Representatives hearing that former President Rodrigo Duterte’s son, son-in-law and Chinese economic adviser owned P11 billion worth of drugs smuggled into the country in 2018.

Dela Rosa said he would initiate the parallel investigation of the “very unbelievable” claims made by Jimmy Guban, at the hearing on Friday of the four-panel “supercommittee” of the House in Bacolor, Pampanga province.

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In his testimony, Guban accused Davao City Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio—the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte—and former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang of being behind the smuggling of “shabu” (crystal meth) from China six years ago.

Two magnetic lifters that arrived in June 2018 were abandoned at the Manila International Container Terminal and were opened on Aug. 7 and found to contain 355 kilograms of shabu with an estimated value of P3.4 billion, which was erroneously reported to be worth P11 billion.

Four identical lifters that arrived in July were found in a warehouse in Cavite province on Aug. 8 already empty. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) estimated that these contained 1.6 tons of shabu worth P11 billion.

Guban told the House legislators that he was forced to be a part of a “grand conspiracy” to clear the names of the ex-president’s family and friend when he appeared at the Senate inquiry into the discovery of the contraband in October that year.

In an interview with dwIZ radio, Dela Rosa said he would be filing a resolution on Monday for the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, which he heads, to carry out a similar probe.

Obviously ‘scripted’

This early, however, the senator seemed to have already prejudged Guban’s credibility and the innocence of Paolo and Carpio.

“Why is he saying these things only now? If you saw the manner he delivered his (testimony), it was obvious that it was scripted and it was not believable,” Dela Rosa said.

“That person’s (lack) of credibility is very clear. He is a convicted criminal, convicted for drug trafficking,” he added.

“The stories he is making now and the names he mentioned were very unbelievable, very unbelievable.”

Dela Rosa also pointed out that Guban, who is currently locked up at New Bilibid Prison after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to import illegal drugs, had previously named former Police Col. Eduardo Acierto as the one who supposedly asked him to look for a consignee for the illegal drugs.

Guban had already walked back on his allegations against Acierto.

Guban was arrested and detained on charges of conspiracy to import the 355 kilos of shabu found in the two magnetic lifters at the Manila International Container Terminal.

Move vs Trillanes

He told the House legislators that he was asked by Jun Vicente de Guzman, the deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation then, to incriminate “the mortal enemy of the Dutertes”—former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV—to the controversy to get him out of jail.

Guban told the congressmen that the conversation to implicate Trillanes happened during a phone call with De Guzman while he was being transferred from the NBI’s custody to the Manila City Jail in 2018.

“I was asking how they can help me get out,” he said. “He was saying that the director (former NBI director Dante Gierran) advised that I sign an NBI report (implicating) the ex-senator. That I would walk free if I signed it.”

Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Paduano, head of the committee on public accounts, moved to summon Gierran, who later served as chief of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., and De Guzman, who retired from the NBI just last week.

Duterte’s son and two others implicated by Guban—former National Irrigation Authority administrator Benny Antiporda and Presidential Task Force for Media Security chief Paul Gutierrez—all denied the allegations and called Guban a liar.

No logic

The public accounts panel is one of the four committees comprising the quadcomm. The others are the committees on dangerous drugs, public order and safety, and human rights.

According to Dela Rosa, it was impossible for the previous administration to threaten Guban to link Trillanes to drug trafficking.

“What the heck?” Dela Rosa said. “Why will you implicate Trillanes in illegal drugs? Will that be believable? Even if I’m annoyed with Trillanes, I would never believe that he’s involved in illegal drugs.”

“There’s no logic in doing that,” he said.

Nonetheless, Dela Rosa said he would still invite Guban to the Senate inquiry along with the other personalities he had named in the House hearing, among them Rep. Duterte, Carpio and Antiporda.

Wary of being ‘hijacked’

Dela Rosa, one of Duterte’s closest allies who had served as the first national police chief during his administration, said he was just hoping that his resolution would not be “hijacked” in the chamber.

Asked to elaborate, he said it was possible that his resolution would not be referred to his committee, which would prevent him from leading the probe.

The police general-turned-senator said he was also hoping that the House members would respect his decision to hold a separate legislative inquiry into Guban’s allegations.

“We observe interparliamentary courtesy. We don’t meddle with their investigation. They should not also meddle with ours,” Dela Rosa added. “They are free to do their thing and we are free to do our thing.”