(Eagle News)– A Valenzuela court has junked the drug cases filed against nine people in connection with the P6.4-billion shabu shipment mess.
In dismissing the case for transportation and delivery of dangerous drugs against self-confessed fixer Mark Taguba II; alleged middlemen Manny Li and Kenneth Dong; import company owner Eirene May Tatad; Customs broker Teejay Marcellana; and businessmen Chen I-Min, Jhu Ming Jhun, and Chen Rong Huan, Chen Ju Long, Judge Arthur Melicor of Branch 284 effectively granted the motions to dismiss filed by Chen, Taguba and Marcellana.
The dismissal came after another Valenzuela court dismissed the same drug charges against the nine, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
The prosecution therefore filed the same charges in a Manila court, where Taguba and Tatad pled not guilty.
“Filing a case for importation in Manila after the court in Valenzuela City has dismissed an earlier case for importation for lack of jurisdiction, and then filing another case, this time for transportation, before this court involving the same accused and based on the same facts, issues and arguments, clearly bears the hallmarks of forum shopping,” Melicor said.
According to Melicor, “from the point of view of the conspiracy to import the subject shabu, it may be said that the transport and delivery to the Hong Fei warehouse was a mere part of a series of acts to execute their shared design to import shabu.”
The P6.4-billion worth of shabu allegedly entered the country via Customs express lanes in May last year.
