Senate to turn over drug witness to DOJ

The Senate will turn over the custody of resigned Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, said he would get the approval of Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III so he could turn over Guban to the DOJ.

“Guban will now be turned over to the Secretary of Justice today,” Gordon told reporters after the hearing of the committee.

“Delikado na siya dito (His life is in danger here),” he said.

The senator said he prepared a letter last week regarding Guban’s transfer to the DOJ, and he would get Sotto’s approval to make that happen.

The former Customs official has been detained in the Senate for refusing to tell the truth during the panel’s hearings on the reported P11-billion worth of smuggled “shabu” (crystal meth).

But after agreeing to tell-all, Guban has been placed under “protective custody” and is now considered a vital witness against certain individuals allegedly linked to drug smuggling.

And despite President Rodrigo Duterte’ earlier order to arrest Guban, Gordon maintained that the former Customs official could not be arrested without a warrant of arrest,

“You cannot arrest without a case against him. Pag sinabi ng Secretary of Justice na aarestuhan sya (If the Secretary of Justice says he will be arrested), they must have a good reason to arrest him,” the senator said.

“And then they will not have anything on Acierto because…si Guban ang nag unravel nito, Siya ang nagsabi na involved si Acierto,” he added.

(And then they will not have anything on Acierto because Guban unraveled this. He said Acierto is involved.)

Gordon was referring to dismissed-Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, who was allegedly behind the smuggling of the P11 billion worth of shabu in the country.

It was Guban who implicated Acierto in past hearings, which he repeated in an affidavit issued on Tuesday and later read before Gordon’s panel. /ee