DOJ wants drug suspect Marcelino transferred to Navy or NBI

Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino escorted by PDEA agents after inquest proceedings at the Department of Justice. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

MANILA — The Department of Justice has proposed to the Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to transfer detained Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino from Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City to either the Philippine Navy or the National Bureau of Investigation.

In a letter to the BJMP, DOJ state prosecutor Theodore Villanueva said Marcelino’s lawyer Dennis Manalo had expressed concern for the Marine officer’s safety and security due to his previous work as head of the special enforcement unit of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

“As publicly known, Lieutenant Colonel Marcelino has caused the detention of many people involved in illegal drugs, some of whom are currently being detained at Camp Bagong Diwa,” Villanueva said in his letter to the BJMP.

Last Jan. 29, Manalo asked the prosecutor to resolve a motion filed two days earlier directing Marcelino’s transfer to the NBI or at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

The same day, however, Marcelino was transferred from the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group temporary detention facility, also in Camp Crame, to the BJMP Annex in Camp Bagong Diwa.

Villanueva noted that Vice Admiral Caesar Taccad, Philippine Navy flag officer in command, has already written the DOJ to offer the Bonifacio Naval Station in Fort Bonifacio, also in Taguig, as Marcelino’s possible place of detention.

Taccad noted that Marcelino has neutralized drug syndicates and cleansed the ranks of attached uniform personnel in PDEA.  “It is in this light that his safety and protection must be highly considered, and which can be better carried out if he will be detained in a Philippine Navy facility,” he said.

The Navy chief also cited Executive Order No. 106, series of 1937, in pushing for military detention of Marcelino.  EO 106 provides that if an Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel is accused of a crime, the suspect should be delivered to the nearest AFP authority.

Taccad assured the public that Marcelino would be safe in Fort Bonifacio, adding that the Navy would conduct a parallel investigation to determine the Marine officer’s liabilities under the articles of war.

Marcelino was arrested at an apartment in Sta. Cruz, Manila, last Jan. 21, on suspicion that he was involved in the the manufacturing of illegal drugs. PNP-AIDG and PDEA operatives seized from the apartment 76 kilos of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).

The Marine officer denied the charge, adding that he was undercover and was on surveillance work when arrested. The case against him is undergoing preliminary investigation at the DOJ, with Villanueva as the assigned prosecutor.  SFM