Customs fixer clears Duterte son, son-in-law

Mark Taguba speaks during the resumption of the House committee on dangerous drugs’ inquiry on the P6.4 billion shipment of drugs into the country on Monday at the House of Representatives.
INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

Customs fixer Mark Ruben Taguba II said on Friday that President Duterte’s son and son-in-law were not involved in the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of “shabu” (crystal meth), which was discovered earlier this year, or in corruption in the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

He also apologized for the “fake news” linking Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and lawyer Manases Carpio, husband of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, to the illegal drug shipment that passed through the BOC in May.

Taguba is under investigation for allegedly helping to facilitate the shabu smuggled from Xiamen, China. He has denied knowing that drugs were in the shipment.

Separate investigations by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the 605-kilo “shabu” shipment have led to the “Davao Group” that allegedly facilitated slipped through the BOC.

“I am making this statement to clear Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and Atty. Manases Carpio from any involvement in the shipment of illegal drugs into the country, and any anomalies in the Bureau of Customs,” Taguba said. “I also hereby apologize to Vice Mayor Duterte, Atty. Carpio and to the first family for the proliferation of fake news arising out of my testimony at the Senate yesterday.”

“I wish to categorically make it clear that: 1. I had never testified, nor will I ever testify that Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and/or Atty. Manse Carpio were involved in the shipment of illegal drugs into the country. Neither have I testified, nor will I ever testify that the aforementioned individuals were involved in the ‘tara system’ that was in place at the Bureau of Customs,” he said.

Taguba made the statement a day after he appeared in a Senate hearing where he read alleged text messages between him and two members of the Davao Group that appeared to implicate the President’s son and son-in-law.

In Davao City, the President defended anew his son and son-in-law from corruption allegations and repeated his promise to step down if evidence showed any of his children was involved in illegal activities.

“If you can present evidence that they are into corruption, better yet if there is a video of them receiving money, then I would resign,” he said in a speech on Friday at the anniversary of the Eastern Mindanao Command in Camp Panacan.

“When the time comes that you think I am fooling you, you are free to advise me to step down or I myself would step down,” he told the troops.

He said allegations by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, one of his most outspoken critics, since last year’s election campaign were “trash” and the senator had not proven any of the charges against him, including the alleged millions he and his son, Paolo, supposedly had secretly stashed in bank accounts.

Mr. Duterte also defended his son-in-law’s standing as a lawyer for cigarette-maker Mighty Corp., which owes billions of taxes to the government.

“For us lawyers, lawyering is lawyering. There was no other motive. Like physicians, you cannot criticize them for treating an enemy,” the President said.

‘Pressure on Taguba’

Trillanes, who wanted to summon the President’s son and son-in-law to the Senate hearing, said he could “only imagine the pressure being applied” on Taguba.

“The hearing yesterday (Thursday) was seen on national TV so the public knows what he said or did not say. The text messages he read aloud which named Paolo Duterte and Manse Carpio were never forced on him and neither were they fabricated,” Trillanes said. “Therefore, Mr. Taguba’s clarification doesn’t change anything.”

In his statement, Taguba said the names of the President’s son and son-in-law were “merely mentioned” by a “Tita Nanie” and a certain “Jack,” whom he described as his “direct contacts” to the Davao Group. The full identities of the two have not been disclosed in the Senate hearing.

“As I had repeatedly stated before Congress and the Senate, the alleged involvement of the aforementioned individuals [Paolo Duterte and Carpio] are hearsay in nature,” he said.

During Thursday’s hearing, Taguba read his exchange of messages with “Tita Nanie” last March where the names of Duterte and Carpio were mentioned.

In earlier hearings Taguba said he met Davao City Councilor Nilo “Small” Abellera Jr. in Davao City last January. Abellera allegedly asked him to pay P5 million so he could receive the protection of the President’s son.

Taguba said since he paid an “enrollment fee” plus weekly remittances, his container vans were never “alerted” by the BOC.

He said that in one text message in January, “Tita Nanie” told him that “Jack” was “the handler of Paolo” who could arrange a meeting with the President’s son to whom he was instructed to hand over a P5-million enrollment fee.

Taguba said he did not personally meet Paolo Duterte but that Abellera and Jack claimed to collect money for the Davao City vice mayor.

Asked by Trillanes: “As far as you’re concerned, this Davao Group make things happen? In other words, do they make the entry of your container vans quicker?”

Taguba replied: “Yes, your honor.”

At the House of Representatives, Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Rep. Jericho Nograles warned Taguba on Friday he could lose his legislative immunity for making conflicting statements.

“The testimony of Mark Taguba in the House and in the Senate have material differences and because of that I cannot accept his testimony in good faith,” Nograles said in a statement.

Congressional immunity

“Mr. Taguba has not told Congress the whole truth and it may cost him his congressional immunity,” said Nograles, brother of Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles.

Nograles, however, did not specify the inconsistencies in Taguba’s statements, noting that part of the BOC fixer’s testimony at the House had been taken behind closed doors.

“I cannot legally divulge what was spoken about in executive session but I can tell you that there are details divulged in the Senate that are materially inconsistent, especially when it comes to the Davao Group,” Nograles said.

“And yes, of course we can take back congressional immunity,” he said.

Under the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act, witnesses in congressional investigations in aid of legislation may be admitted into the witness protection program upon the recommendation of the committee conducting the hearing and approval by the Senate President or the House Speaker. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND FRINSTON LIM