THERE was nothing irregular in the photographs of the X-ray scan result conducted on four magnetic lifters that supposedly contained P6.8 billion worth of shabu as submitted by the Bureau of Customs to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Dangerous Drugs.
A Customs official said this on Friday after Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron Aquino insisted during Thursday’s committee’s hearing that PDEA’s highly trained and decorated K-9 dogs could never go wrong.
Aquino said the dogs sat on the magnetic lifters that slipped past the MICP, indicating the presence of illegal drugs.
During the House hearing, Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo noted the discrepancy in the colored photographs that he obtained from his source and the black and white photos submitted by the BoC to the committee that conducted its second hearing on the issue on Thursday.
Quimbo said that the hollow portion at the bottom of the images that showed brown discoloration proved the existence of shabu as pointed out by PDEA.
But the BoC official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the MICP X-ray inspector that looked at and interpreted the scan had not been remiss in his job and was trained by Nuctech, the supplier of the X-ray machines for the BOC. The X-ray Inspector assigned at the MICP is under the Office of Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña.
During the hearing, BOC X-ray expert John Mar Morales downplayed the bits of brown at the bottom of the lifters cited by Quimbo, saying it was the same in the space in the black and white scan. If the magnetic lifters contained anything, the light brown discoloration would appear darker than brown, Morales said.
For her part, BoC X-ray Chief Zsae de Guzman said what Quimbo presented was a “pseudo-color” scan that gives “different effects” on the image. She said the color scan conducted on the shipment was unauthorized and could quickly be evaluated with malice.
The BoC official welcomed the committee’s decision to invite an expert of Nuctech to interpret the X-ray scan images.
He stressed that the same shipment could have passed through any ports in the country and yield the same X-ray scan results as long as there is no manipulation of resolution conducted.
“We have to accept for now that the said magnetic lifters were devoid of illegal substance until the PDEA can present evidence proving otherwise. The burden of proof that there were illegal drugs lies with the PDEA, not the BoC,” the Customs official said.