Gutierrez questioned over visit to Guban in Senate detention

Jimmy Guban. PHOTO FROM HREP

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker questioned on Thursday the intentions of former media security task force chief Paul Gutierrez when he visited former Bureau of Customs (BOC) intelligence officer Jimmy Guban in Senate detention “to check his health” and ask him questions related to his case “as a curious journalist.”

Gutierrez denied anew Guban’s claim during the 10th hearing of the House of Representatives’ quad committee, where Guban alleged that Gutierrez had warned him against naming Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte, his brother-in-law Manases Carpio, and businessman Michael Yang in a 2018 “shabu” or crystal meth importation case.

READ: Paul Gutierrez denies ex-BOC official’s claims: ‘He is an inveterate liar’

“I categorically deny the lies being spread by Mr. Guban in this committee. At the time, I was assigned as a reporter for People’s Journal / Tonight. My beat is Senate; that’s why I was always there to cover the hearings and all the development and also in the Bureau of Customs,” Gutierrez told the lawmakers.

“At that time, he was already testifying for quite a while in the Senate. I was really curious if he’s really sick or if his blood pressure really rose,” he added.

Upon hearing this, Surigao del Sur 2nd District Rep. Johnny Pimentel asked Gutierrez why he seemed to care so much about Guban’s health.

“Are you the doctor of the Senate? Why would you say that you wanted to see Mr. Guban’s health condition? You told this committee earlier that you were a media personnel when the Senate hearing was being conducted. Why would you visit him? What time?” he asked again.

Trying to recall their encounter, Gutierrez said he visited Guban one afternoon after a Senate hearing.

He insisted that he only asked about Guban’s health and also asked the former customs officer a rhetorical question in case former Police Colonel Eduardo Acierto revealed secrets about him.

To recall, Guban tagged Acierto as the man behind the smuggling of 355 kilograms of shabu hidden in steel magnetic lifters in 2018. The narcotics passed inspection by the BOC after they arrived at the Manila International Container Terminal in August of the same year.

During a Senate probe in the same year, Guban alleged that it was Acierto who directed him to look for a consignee for the magnetic lifters used to conceal the shabu.

Before this, Acierto tagged former Presidential Economic Adviser Michael Yang as a drug lord in 2017. He then claimed that former President Rodrigo Duterte, Sen. Christopher Go, and Sen. Ronald dela Rosa were aware of this but had turned a blind eye to his involvement.

Acierto also claimed that Duterte wanted the military and the police to kill him due to his move to have Yang and Allan Lim investigated because of their alleged link to the illegal drug trade.