‘Shabu’ shipment consignee detained at Senate

The Senate blue ribbon committee on Wednesday cited in contempt the “consignee on record” of the shipment of magnetic lifters suspected to have contained some P6.8 billion worth of “shabu” (crystal meth).

Sen. Richard Gordon, the committee chair, moved to cite Marina Signapan of SMYD Trading for contempt and ordered her detained at the Senate after he refused to believe her statement on who had paid her P180,000 to be the consignee on record.

Signapan was the second witness to be cited for contempt by Gordon in connection with the controversial cargo.

Held in contempt

Earlier held in contempt and detained at the Senate was Jimmy Guban, an officer of the Bureau of Customs’ intelligence and investigation service.

Gordon alleged that Guban was lying about his role in the handling of the cargo.

It was found that Guban was the one who sought out SYMD Trading to be the consignee of the shipment to facilitate its entry, supposedly to help an operation against another shipment.

Later, Guban tapped scrapper Joel Maritana to sign an affidavit that would protect Signapan.

On Wednesday, Signapan said it was Maritana who paid her to use SMYD Trading’s name as consignee of the magnetic lifters.

But Maritana denied this.

Gordon noted that Maritana had said he could not afford the P180,000.

Investigators also found that Maritana was a man of modest means.