Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – When Justice Secretary Leila De Lima saw the arrest warrant for alleged rice smuggler David Tan, she said she found it strange.
It was because the warrant of arrest that would supposedly identify the person facing charges also denied that the name of the accused is David Bangayan, long believed as the real identity of the notorious rice smuggler who allegedly built a network of smugglers and paid off customs employees with cash gifts worth P6 billion.
Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) chair Jesus Arranza earlier told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that David Tan was the alias of “a certain Davidson Tan Bangayan,” a Chinese-Filipino from Davao City.
“This is rather unusual or strange. Ngayon lang ako nakakita ng warrant of arrest na ganito ang tenor (It’s the first time I read a warrant of arrest with this tenor),” De Lima said in an interview on Radyo Inquirer 990 AM.
The warrant supposedly said “David Tan who is not Davidson Bangayan,” De Lima said in reading the warrant in the interview.
The warrant, however, was not for charges of rice smuggling but for violating the Republic Act No. 7832, or the Anti-Electricity and Electric Transmission Lines/Materials Pilferage Act of 1994.
“Ngayon lang ako nakakita na parang dineclare (na hindi siya ‘yung suspect) (It’s the first time that a warrant somehow declared someone as not the suspect)” she added.
De Lima said the wording in the warrant stopped the NBI from arresting Bangayan who went with his lawyer to the bureau Wednesday supposedly to clear his name from the smuggling issue.
She added that the NBI tried to verify the arrest warrant with the Caloocan city Regional Trial Court Branch 126 which issued it. The court’s presiding judge is Lorenza Paculdo.
But the court said only parties to the case were allowed to go through the records, De Lima said.
De Lima said the NBI remained confident that Bangayan is the smuggling kingpin Tan, especially as the arrest warrant cited the address of Tan as that of Bangayan.
Meanwhile, NBI officer-in-charge Medardo De Lemos said the bureau has to be careful to make sure the subject of the warrant is the real David Tan.
“Mahirap pag papel lang at pangalan. Common name kasi ang David Tan,” he said in an interview on Radyo Inquirer.
He said the NBI would issue a subpoena for Bangayan to appear before the bureau’s Anti-Graft Division for questioning.
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