Marcelino family still trying to raise P1M bail

Ferdinand Marcelino. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA — After suffering seeing their brother in jail for four months for a crime they insisted he did not commit, the family of former “drugs buster” and Marine Col. Ferdinand Marcelino rejoiced when a Quezon City court granted his petition for bail on otherwise non-bailable drugs charges.

His eldest sister Beran, 58, in a phone interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Wednesday evening, described the reaction of their family when they heard the news: “We were so overjoyed, it was like we won the lottery,” she said, in Filipino. “We were so thankful to God, that he granted freedom to our brother.”

But Beran admitted there was a caveat, as the court set the bail at a whopping P1 million: “Everyone knows the situation of our family,” Beran said, harking back to previous reports the family has been living a modest life. “We’re still working together to raise funds, asking help from those who knew and who have faith in him.”

Beran dismissed insinuations Marcelino would easily be able to post bail: “He doesn’t have any hidden wealth.”

Beran said they have been working to have Marcelino post bail on Friday. “By Friday, we hope we can be together again; we hope our mother can embrace him again,” Beran said.

Marcelino, the former head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Special Enforcement Service Unit, and Chinese national Yang Yi Shou, whose bail petition was denied, remain at the Philippine National Police custodial center, facing narcotics complaints at the Department of Justice after they were caught in a “shabu” (methampethamine hydrochloride) lab raided by the PDEA and the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG) in Sta. Cruz, Manila last Jan. 21.

Marcelino, who is now with the Philippine Navy, has insisted he and Shou, a former PDEA translator, were in a legitimate surveillance operation, but after two months, Marcelino has yet to present an actual mission order for the Sta. Cruz operation, a point continually pressed by the PDEA and the PNP-AIDG to prove there is probable cause to file narcotics charges against the two.

But Marcelino’s supporters believe Marcelino and Shou were actually in the “shabu” lab to validate, on their own volition, any narcotics operations in it. Shou, in an affidavit, earlier admitted he relayed his suspicions to Marcelino that the Sta. Cruz apartment might contain narcotics.

Beran insisted on her brother’s claim to innocence. “From what he’s told us, he was really there just to work. Everyone who knows him knows he does that. He was just checking if the information was true.”

Beran described her brother as someone with a hero complex. “It’s like he feels happiest, he feels like he’s Superman, when he does this.”

Asked about the court’s issuance of a hold departure order against Marcelino, Beran simply said: “Why would he think of leaving? He hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s a good person. He has nothing to fear.”

Beran expressed hopes the DOJ, too, would also eventually junk the cases against Marcelino.

Meanwhile, the PNP-AIDG expressed dismay about the granting of the bail petition. Senior Supt. Leonardo Suan, the PNP-AIDG chief-of-staff, in an interview with the media, said they have not received a copy of the resolution, but wondered why the court would grant Marcelino bail and not Shou when the two were arrested simultaneously and were facing the same complaints.

Suan maintained their evidence against Marcelino was strong enough to prove he was involved in illegal drugs operations.  SFM/rga