INVESTIGATION and prosecution of suspects involved in the big shabu laboratory busted on July 9 last year in Barangay Bimmotobot in Naguilian, La Union is not yet over.

This means that the police officers, including former Dagupan Police Chief Dionicio Borromeo, implicated in the case are not off-the-hook just yet.

Chief Superintendent Luizo Ticman, police regional director, said the case, which was dismissed for lack of evidence by the prosecution panel created by the Department of Justice, is now under automatic review by the regional state prosecutor in La Union and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales.

“The case is still ongoing and is still being reviewed,” said Ticman during the Kapihan Forum of the Pangasinan Press and Radio Club on Wednesday.

Borromeo’s co-respondents in the case are PO3 Joey Abang, PO2 Walter Banang, PO1 Rodolfo Damian Jr. and Eusebio Tangalin, owner of the land where the shabu laboratory was built.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also ordered the reinvestigation of the case at the request of Rep. Thomas Dumpit Jr., second district of La Union, and La Union Bishop Artemio Rillera when the chief executive was in San Fernando City on December 30 for the Rizal Day rite.

Considering that the case is under automatic review, he (Borromeo) is not off-the hook yet, said Ticman, but pointed out that the review of the case has no specific time frame.

At least 44 other policemen were also investigated but they have already been ordered to report back to their mother units.

Pending the final result of the investigation, Borromeo also currently reports at Camp Crame.

Ticman said the other case filed over the same incident against Dante Palaganas and Andy Tangalin, both caretakers of the shabu laboratory, and Joselito Artuz, alias George Cordero, the alleged financier, is continuing.

It was Palaganas who implicated Borromeo as the alleged protector of the shabu laboratory which was believed to have started operations in May 2007.

The shabu laboratory in Upper Bimmotobot, Naguilian, estimated to be worth more than one trillion pesos, was considered as the biggest drug bust ever scored by lawmen, led by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, in the campaign against illegal drugs.—LM

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