Richard Chen, aka Richard Tan INQUIRER file photo / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
“Richard Tan is just a forwarder. The heat is on him because he’s the convenient excuse.”
This was the defense of the camp of Chinese businessman Richard Tan, who was described by the Senate blue ribbon committee as the one “ultimately responsible” for the P6.4-billion “shabu” shipment that entered the country.
Atty. Abraham Gutoc, legal counsel of Tan, defended his client after the blue ribbon committee, chaired by Senator Richard Gordon, pinned the blame on Tan over the importation of illegal drugs last May, the biggest drug haul under President Rodrigo Duterte’s leadership.
“It’s really unfair to call him the ultimate responsible. He’s basically not the proximate nor the ultimate cause why P6.4-billion worth of shabu entered the Philippines,” Gutoc said in an interview with Inquirer.
“Some unscrupulous people only used his company to bring in drugs here, but did he know about these drugs? Of course not,” he said.
Those criminally responsible, the lawyer added, are the ones who actually sent out the drugs, who availed the services of Tan’s forwarding company Hong Fei Logistics.
Real criminals
If the government is serious in its war on drugs, Gutoc said the Senate report should “highlight who the real criminals are.”
“There should be a directive to search for these people,” he said.
Gordon’s committee report, which is currently being routed at the Senate for signing by the senators, said that Tan was responsible for the shipment of drugs from Xiamen, China.
“The committee finds that the ultimate responsibility for the importation of these illegal drugs fall squarely on the shoulders of (Tan) as owner of Hong Fei Logistics,” Senator Richard Gordon’s committee said in its report which Inquirer first obtained.
“After all, the intent to commit the crime is not indispensable since the act committed of is mala prohibita. Hong Fei Logistics, no doubt, facilitated the importation of the said illegal drugs,” it said.
A day before the May 26 raid, Wang Xi Dong, a Customs police officer in Xiamen, China informed Tan that the five insulator machines delivered to his warehouse in Valenzuela City contained drugs. Wang said the shipper in China has already been arrested. He also told Tan that the Philippines’ Bureau of Customs (BOC) will already act on the shipment.
Tan, fearing for his life, relayed to the BOC that there were drugs in the warehouse. Accompanied by former BOC’s intelligence service chief Neil Estrella, Tan along with an interpreter went to the warehouse where a BOC-led raid ensued.
Tan only an ‘informant’
Gutoc stressed that Tan did not know that the delivery contained shabu until the Chinese customs informed him.
“As a freight forwarder, if a package is received by the company, unless it’s an apparent in the packaging that it’s a contraband, then they don’t have the duty to inspect. It’s not even legal for them to open it. That would be a violation to their right to privacy,” he said.
He said Tan proved his sincerity to cooperate with the authorities when he reached out to the BOC, despite fearing for his life.
“Mr. Tan was there the whole time during the raid but he wasn’t placed in handcuffs because he wasn’t a suspect. He never concealed the drugs,” Gutoc said, adding that new items in China would even laud Tan for helping Philippine authorities discover the huge drug delivery.
“He had a ticket to go to China but he didn’t fly out when this incident happened because he wanted to clear his name,” Gutoc said.
Not a drug importer
This was also the first time Tan’s company got dragged into a controversy, said the lawyer.
“Mr. Tan was not even a suspected drug lord. He has no history of being involved in drugs. Prior to this incident, Hong Fei has never been involved in any importation of contraband,” he said.
Before the controversy, Tan, who has been doing business in the country for 20 years, had actively organized events in the Filipino-Chinese community.
But since he was “wrongfully associated” as a drug importer, the community now “looks down” on Tan, said the lawyer.
“Before he was very active in the business circles. But now he’s ashamed, he’s embarrassed,” Gutoc said.
Tan was included in the criminal cases filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for importation of drugs, a violation of the Republic Act no. 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, a non-bailable offense.
“He is going to face all the charges against him. He will present evidence that will clear from all the charges,” Gutoc said. /jpv
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