3 fugitives charged for operating shabu lab near Mt. Arayat

PRESIDENT Duterte inspects a “shabu” laboratory found in Arayat town in Pampanga province in September 2016. JOAN BONDOC

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Three fugitives have been charged by the police, in connection with the construction of what has been regarded as the country’s biggest laboratory of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) in Arayat, Pampanga.

Sunday D. Chua, Jacky Lee Shi and Anthony Cua Reyes, who are all at-large, are facing charges filed at the Regional Trial Court Branch 44 on Oct. 18 for manufacturing, distributing and possessing shabu, according to Supt. Samuel Sevilla, Arayat chief of police.

The laboratory is located in Barangay (village) Lacquios, just across the National Irrigation Administration’s Cong Dadong Dam, at the foothills of Mt. Arayat.

Local authorities discovered the facility on Sept. 22, weeks after the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) shut down an underground shabu factory in nearby Magalang town on Sept. 7. The two laboratories were five kilometers apart.

The first suspect, Hong Wenzheng, was captured during the Sept. 22 raid, and was charged for the same offenses.

Sevilla said the case took some time because the police had to wait for PDEA’s confirmation that the facility was a shabu laboratory. Social media was abuzz with claims it was a paint-making factory.

Sevilla said the Arayat police would request the court on Oct. 20 to approve the turnover of the facility to the PDEA.

Gov. Lilia Pineda on Wednesday (Oct. 19) said she wanted the facility to be torn down to give way to a drug rehabilitation center following a Sept. 27 order of President Duterte to reuse it. The President inspected the facility that he said was capable of making 400 kilograms of shabu daily.

In Minalin town, vigilant local officials inspected a piggery that a Taiwanese national bought for about P33 million in Barangay Sto. Rosario, Mayor Edgar Flores said, but they did not uncover anomalies in its operations.  SFM