Convict to spill beans on pals

The local counterparts of the foreigners convicted last month for operating a shabu laboratory in Mandaue City may not yet be off the hook if authorities get hold of evidence against them.

Former Cebu City south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco, who authored the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs law, revealed yesterday that representatives from the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be going to Cebu on March 26 to discuss the possible  testimony of one of the convicts against their local counterparts.

Nine foreigners and two Filipinos were convicted last month for this major drug case that started with the raid on a mega shabu laboratory in 2004.

Cuenco said DOJ representatives will also exert effort to confiscate the dollar deposits of Calvin Tan, the alleged financier in the shabu laboratory operation, in Hong Kong and People’s Republic of China.

“The local contacts are equally liable with the crime of illegal manufacture of dangerous drugs, so the local contacts are guilty because they are part of the conspiracy to commit a crime. They will face a trial,” Cuenco said in his visit to dyLA on Monday.

Cuenco said this convict is a foreigner and the same person who expressed willingness before to identify the local contacts provided that he would be admitted as state witness.

Cuenco, however, said he will try to work it out with the DOJ for the commutation of sentence but it’s difficult to free him because he was already convicted. /Jhunnex Napallacan Correspondent