Mark Taguba. SCREENGRAB FROM HOR
In spite of his recent drug conviction, alleged Bureau of Customs (BOC) fixer Mark Taguba told lawmakers that he never retracted his allegations that former President Rodrigo Duterte’s son and son-in-law were involved in the P6.4-billion “shabu” shipment smuggled from China through the BOC seven years ago.
Appearing before the House quad committee hearing on Wednesday, Taguba clarified that he was only forced to apologize to Davao City Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte and his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio, who is Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, and that he remained consistent in his statements to both the Senate and the House inquiries into the smuggling.
READ: Customs broker, 2 others guilty over shipment of P6.4B shabu
“I never recanted my affidavit against Pulong Duterte,” Taguba said in response to Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro’s questions, calling the congressman by his popular nickname.
“And it’s already so unfair for me because people already think of me as a drug lord,” he added.
‘Original sin’
“My original sin was the ‘tara’ (grease money) scheme but I have never been involved in drugs,” Taguba said. “I never even got charged with bribery or even perjury. Maybe they are afraid because I had text messages as proof.”
In 2017, Taguba said Duterte, Carpio, and their associates were part of the so-called Davao Group to whom he paid as much as P1 million weekly as grease money to allow shipping containers to breeze through the BOC.
The shabu shipment was seized in two warehouses in Valenzuela City on May 26, 2017.
Taguba alleged then that Davao City Councilor Nilo “Small” Abellera Jr. asked him to pay P5 million as “enrollment money” to the Davao Group.
‘Tita Nannie’
Taguba had shown lawmakers a text message from a certain “Tita Nannie” from the BOC, which said: “Good am, Mark. We’ll make final arrangement with Jack, he’s the handler of Paolo, now we have to advance the enroll. He can fly down to Davao to arrange your meeting with Pulong ASAP. During the meeting, you personally turn over the P5M, in the same manner you likewise turned over the LMLN to Jack when we met.”
No personal meeting
Taguba clarified that he did not personally meet Duterte, but he said Abellera and Jack told him that they were collecting money for the congressman.
He said he first met “Tita Nannie” in a Quezon City mall and he received instructions from her on how to transact with the Davao Group. Aside from Taguba’s statements that she worked at the BOC, the woman has yet to be fully identified.
On Nov. 18, Taguba and his coaccused Eirene Mae Tatad and Kenneth Dong were sentenced to life imprisonment for the shabu smuggling. They have filed a motion for reconsideration and sought the inhibition of the judge handling the case.
READ: BIR: Taguba earned P1.2 billion as Customs ‘fixer’ in 2016
An emotional Taguba told lawmakers that since he implicated the Dutertes in the shipment, he endured harassment and threats to himself and his family. He even received a message that people “wanted to kill my mother,” he said.
Trillanes’ appeal
Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who was present at Wednesday’s hearing, appealed to the lawmakers to place Taguba under the quad committee’s protection as he planned to present the former customs broker as a witness in the drug smuggling complaint he had filed against the Dutertes in the Department of Justice in July.
Quad committee co-chair and Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Paduano moved to have Taguba detained at the House until the termination of the panel hearings or “until the threat to his life is eliminated.”
Taguba surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation on Jan. 31, 2018, after he was served a warrant of arrest while detained at the Senate.
He and seven other respondents at that time were accused of violating Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, in connection with the shabu shipment from China that slipped through the BOC. The court did not recommend bail for the respondents. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH