Director General Aaron Aquino of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said Thursday the four magnetic lifters seized in Cavite by Customs and PDEA agents contained P6.8 billion worth of smuggled methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.
He made the statement as the House of Representatives’ committee on dangerous drugs, led by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, resumed its probe into the alleged entry of the illegal drugs.
But Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop dismissed as “wishful thinking” the discovery of the alleged missing one ton of shabu worth P6.8 billion that passed through the Bureau of Customs.
“If it is about getting the drugs from there, I think that would be wishful thinking already from all the indications that we have,” said Acop, a retired police general.
He made the statement in response to Barbers’ insistence on looking for the “corpus delicti” or the physical evidence of the missing shabu.
The alleged one-ton shipment slipped past PDEA, the Bureau of Customs and police personnel deployed at the seaports and airports and tasked to prevent the entry of illegal drugs.
In a previous hearing, Customs officials expressed doubt on the existence of the shabu based on the swab tests.
Even President Rodrigo Duterte said earlier that there were no drugs in the magnetic lifters seized in Cavite.
Upon questioning by Liberal Party Rep. Miro Quimbo of Marikina, Aquino insisted that the lifters contained illegal drugs.
Aquino described as “unfair” the allegations that he was wrong to announce that the magnetic lifters had contained shabu.
“Precisely, it is unfair. Because I am just telling the truth and precisely, the truth and the goodness will prevail,” Aquino said.
Aquino reiterated that PDEA’s canine sniffer “responded twice” to every magnetic lifter when they inspected the warehouse in Cavite.
“And we all know that K-9 can detect scents 10,000 more accurately [than] a human being. And I know that because I was once assigned to a K-9 unit during my junior days,” Aquino said.
“Definitely, we believe in our K-9. In fact, I am buying 100 dogs for our K-9 unit this September to enhance and strengthen our capabilities in our seaports and airports.”
PDEA Calabarzon Regional Director Adrian Alvariño also presented to lawmakers their findings so far on the alleged shabu shipment. He insisted that “circumstantial evidence” would show that the four magnetic lifters used to contain shabu.
He said the magnetic lifters seized in Cavite were similar to the two magnetic lifters that were found to contain more than 355 kilos of shabu at the Manila International Container Terminal.
All six magnetic lifters shared the same cables, power supplies and method of concealment through asbestos, foil, and plastic, Alvariño said.
Nevertheless, Aquino admitted that the two magnetic lifters seized at the MICT also allegedly tested negative for drugs in the joint swab test of PDEA and the National Police. He said the lifters tested negative although shabu was recovered from them.