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Showing posts with label missing shabu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label missing shabu. Show all posts

President Rodrigo Duterte announced on Thursday afternoon that he would move embattled Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña to head the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Lapeña removal comes just a day after he acknowledged that magnetic lifters seized by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in August may have contained at least P6.8 billion worth in methamphetamine hydrocholoride (shabu).

The PDEA has since said that the shabu that could have been hidden in the lifters could be worth as much as P11 billion.

The new valuation is based on the weight of the lifters. PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said they conducted a weighing test on the magnetic lifters with the Department of Public Works and Highways and compared their weight with that specified on bill of lading.

He said there was a discrepancy of 1.6 tons between the earlier figure and the re-recorded weight.

The Customs chief said this week that he wouldn't resign despite the issues surrounding the bureau. President Duterte's announcement means he can make good on that statement.

Duterte addressed Lapeña directly: "I will promote you to a Cabinet member position. General ... Guerrero, you are to move to the Bureau of Customs."

He made the announcement during a speech at the Philippine Coast Guard anniversary.

MARINA chief to take over Customs

Lapeña will be replaced at the BOC by former Armed Forces chief and current Marina Administration Administrator Leonardo Rey Guerrero, who was named to the post in April.

The president acknowledged he knew Guerrero was already happy was with his position, but he was compelled to order the move because "the demands of public service and the need for honest men requires it."

All personnel would be on floating status to give time for Guerrero to "clean up" the department, according to Duterte.

This is not the first time that a Customs chief has been replaced after allegations of a huge shipment of shabu slipping past inspectors. In August 2017, Nicanor Faeldon resigned after being tagged in the entry of P6.4 billion in shabu that was later seized in a warehouse in Valenzuela City.

Lapeña, PDEA chief at the time, was assigned to take over for Faeldon, who has since been assigned to the Office of Civil Defense.

The House of Representatives' Committee on Dangerous Drugs and the Senate blue ribbon committee are holding separate inquiries into the alleged smuggling of drugs into the Philippines.

The president's practice of reappointing and reshuffling officials has been criticized in the past, with opposition lawmakers like Sen. Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV saying it sends mixed single. "There is a clear double standard in the continuous recycling of officials involved in anomalies such as Nicanor Faeldon, [former National Food Authority administrator]Jason Aquino and others," Aquino said in May.

SOURCE: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/10/25/1863121/duterte-promotes-lapea-tesda-ex-afp-chief-guerrero-head-customs

Duterte 'promotes' Lapeña to TESDA; ex-AFP chief Guerrero to head Customs


The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Thursday, October 25, revised its figures for the missing shabu (methamphetamine) from 4 magnetic lifters found in Cavite in August, saying the illegal drugs are now estimated to weigh 1.618 tons worth P11 billion and not one ton worth P6.8 billion, as earlier reported.

PDEA chief Director General Aaron Aquino announced this on Thursday after speaking at the monthly Club Filipino forum in San Juan City.

According to Aquino, PDEA made a recomputation after weighing the empty lifters found in General Mariano Alvarez town in Cavite and comparing it to the initial weight declared in importation documents.

"Ang lumalabas sa aming pagtitimbang...lumabas doon [na diperensya] is 1,618 kilos. Kung i-multiply mo 'yun ng P6.8 million bawat kilo, it would turn out to be P11 billion worth of illegal drugs," Aquino said.

(What came out from our reweighing...it showed a difference of 1,618 kilos. If you multiply that by P6.8 million per kilo, it would turn out to be P11 billion worth of illegal drugs.)



What they weighed: According to Aquino, PDEA agents reinserted everything they found inside the lifters, placed them inside a shipment container, placed that container onto a truck and weighed them all with the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Calamba, Laguna.

Aquino said the container and the truck used had the same weight as what was recorded in the lifters' bill of lading, or the importation receipt for the consignee of imported goods.

"So ang assumption namin, 'yun 'yung nawawalang droga doon sa GMA (General Mariano Alvarez town), Cavite.... Equal dapat sila eh, kasi nilagay namin lahat ng accessories ng magnetic lifters, sinama namin 'yung magnetic lifter, 'yung power supply, 'yung mga cables. Lahat, pati asbestos fillers, pati mga wooden pallets," Aquino said.

(So our assumption is that is the missing illegal drugs in GMA, Cavite.... They should have weighed equally, because we placed all the accessories of the magnetic lifters. We included the power supply, the cables. All, even the asbestos fillers, even the wooden pallets.)

PDEA's initial estimate: The PDEA earlier believed that the missing shabu weighed a ton. This was only based on the shabu found in two of the same type of magnetic lifters at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

The PDEA had estimated that the MICP magnetic lifters contained 250 kilograms (kg) of shabu each. Applying this to the lifters in Cavite, PDEA estimated the latter held a ton of shabu.

But PDEA had revised the weight estimate on the two lifters too after weighing the seized shabu, which weighed only 355 kg.

Why not just multiply 355 kg to two to reflect having 4 magnetic lifters? Aquino said that the drugs did not completely fill up the two other lifters.

"Umaalog-alog pa nga (The lifters were not packed)," Aquino said.

The PDEA believed that with the new weight estimate, the 4 lifters in Cavite were likely to have been fully loaded with shabu. – Rappler.com

SOURCE: https://www.rappler.com/nation/215120-pdea-revises-estimate-amount-of-missing-shabu

PDEA revises estimate: Missing shabu worth P11B not P6.8B

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