The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has recaptured a fugitive who escaped in 1990 and went into hiding for more than 32 years, after being charged and found guilty of smuggling 58 kilograms of shabu.
The NBI – Dactyloscopy Division has positively identified through fingerprint examination that the arrested suspect bearing the name Tsai Rong Chang is the same person as Frank Chua, who also used the alias Tsai Jung Shui.
Chua was first arrested in 1989 together, with the other suspects for smuggling of 58 kilograms of shabu in Ilocos Sur.
However, on March 22, 1990, all the accused escaped from the Vigan Provincial Jail.
Trial in absentia ensued and on October 7, 1994, the court found Chua and his cohorts guilty as charged and sentenced them to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment.
Chua hid in several places in the Philippines and was arrested by the operatives of NBI-Anti-Illegal Drug Task Force and NBI – Olongapo District Office (NBI-OLDO) on July 4, 2003 at Ding Ho Restaurant, Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
He refused to admit that he is Frank Chua and claimed that his name is Tsai Jung Shui. Shui’s fingerprint was compared to Chua’s fingerprint on record, retrieved from the Provincial Jail of Vigan, Ilocos Sur. NBI operatives discovered that the two sets of fingerprints were identical, hence, he was thereafter turned over to the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), where he again escaped in 2004.
Finally, on July 28, 2022, NBI – Task Force Against Illegal Drugs (NBI-TFAID) was able to arrest the fugitive in Sampaloc, Manila. Again, he denied that he is Frank Chua and claiming that he is Tsai Rong Chang.
Comparative examinations conducted by the NBI-Dactyloscopy Division on the fingerprints taken when he was arrested in 2003, fingerprints taken at the Bureau of Corrections in September 2003; and fingerprints taken from subject after he was arrested by the NBI-TFAID on July 28, 2022, confirmed that Frank Chua, Tsai Jung Shui, and Tsai Rong Chang were one and the same person.
