SHABU LABORATORY INVESTIGATION

HEADS will roll when the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the task force created by Police Regional Director Chief Supt. Romeo Hilomen complete their investigation into the trillion peso shabu laboratory raided by lawmen on July 9.

The CIDG has started its formal investigation on P/Supt. Dionicio Borromeo, former chief of police of Dagupan, who is the lone police officer so far implicated into the shabu laboratory discovered by lawmen in secluded barangay Upper Binmotobot, Naguilian, La Union.

Earlier, PNP chief Director-General Avelino Razon Jr. relieved Borromeo and ordered that he be brought to Camp Crame in Manila to face investigation from the CIDG.

Razon said he has ordered a deeper probe into the incident to find out if there are other policemen involved, saying he will not spare anyone who had a hand in the protection of the biggest shabu laboratory so far discovered in the entire country.

Given the magnitude of the busted shabu laboratory, which is estimated to have a capacity for manufacturing trillion pesos worth of the illegal drug, nothing less than a sweeping PNP-wide investigation will be conducted to bring all the culprits to justice.

Meanwhile, Task Force Binmotobot headed by P/Sr Supt. Jane Auzo, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, has widened its probe on the case by eyeing the inclusion of about 20 other policemen who are also going to be placed under investigation.

Borromeo, a bemedalled police officer and former group director of the Police Mobile Group of Police Regional Office 1 based in San Fernando City, La Union, was implicated by Dante Tomas Palaganas, one of two caretakers of the busted shabu laboratory.

Palaganas, a former rebel returnee, was identified as Borromeo’s “asset” who helped him in the arrest of Domingo Tarectecan, a ranking rebel leader in the Ilocos region.

Borromeo admitted that Palaganas was his asset but belied the latter’s allegation that he was involved in the shabu laboratory.

He also pointed out that he sought his own investigation so that he can clear his name in a proper forum.

Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation also arrived in the country last week to look into the materials seized from the laboratory to check if an international drug ring is involved.

NO PIG FARM

Initial investigation showed that the shabu laboratory was established sometime in March 2007 on an 11-hectare area leased from Saturnino Tangalin by one George Cordero, purportedly as a piggery site.

When lawmen raided the place on the strength of search warrant issued by Regional Trial Judge Fernando Fe of Bauang, La Union, some 20 goats were also found grazing in the area.

The pigs and goats were believed used as cover for the shabu laboratory because their droppings emit odor that is almost similar to the scent of shabu.

The laboratory reportedly began to operate, producing an initial 100 kilos of shabu worth some P600 million last May and was shipped to Manila undetected by lawmen.

The laboratory is believed to have produced a volume of shabu thrice bigger than the initial production after the successful initial delivery and was again about to produce another big volume when it was raided by lawmen spearheaded by the La Union police, Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group, Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division. PDEA, Naguilian Police and the municipal health office of Naguilian.

In Dagupan City, Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. expressed shock over the relief of Borromeo and a spate of news reports in the media that he was being linked to the shabu laboratory operations.

“I hope that Colonel Borromeo can clear himself with this serious allegation against him” Fernandez said in an interview after he arrived from Da Nang, Vietnam.

Saying that the matter about Borromeo is now in the hands of the PNP, Fernandez welcomed the designation of Superintendent Mariano Luis Verzosa as supervisor of the Dagupan police.

He said the PNP has yet to submit a short list of five officers from whom he will choose the next Dagupan City chief of police.—LM

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