Marcelino to join high-profile detainees at PNP custodial center

The Marine colonel who was detained for his alleged links to a Chinese drug syndicate would join the high-profile detainees at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame on Friday evening pending his petition for bail.

The spokesperson of the PNP’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group said Ferdinand Marcelino and Chinese national Yan Yi Shou would be transferred to the detention facility at the PNP headquarters from the Quezon City Jail annex at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Among the detainees held at the custodial center are Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada.

Chief Insp. Roque Merdegia Jr. said this was based on the order of Judge Lyn Ebora-Cacha of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 82.

This was after Marcelino’s camp expressed concern for the security of the Marine official.

As the previous head of the special enforcement unit of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Marcelino caused the detention of drug offenders, some of them at Camp Bagong Diwa.

Before they were detained at the Taguig police camp, Marcelino and Yan were held at the AIDG headquarters in Camp Crame after their arrest.

But Merdegia said their detention at the custodial center might be temporary.

“The transfer of place of detention is only pending the petition for bail. Once the criminal information is filed before the proper court, the proper court will issue the commitment order to transfer them to Manila City Jail,” he said.

Last month, antidrug operatives arrested Marcelino and Yan at an apartment in Sta. Cruz, Manila, where AIDG and PDEA members confiscated 76 kilos of “shabu” or metamphetamine hydrochloride.

Marcelino denied the accusations against him and maintained that he was doing surveillance work when the officers arrested him. RC

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