THE Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday started its preliminary investigation on the P6.4-billion drug-smuggling case filed against three Filipino-Chinese businessmen and seven others in May by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
During the preliminary investigation, Dong Yi Shen, alias Kenneth Dong, appeared in the hearing and submitted his counter-affidavit denying the charges of importation of illegal drugs under Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act).
Dong was arrested by the NBI over a rape case and is now detained in the Parañaque City jail.
Aside from Dong, importer Eirene May Tatad, one of the respondents, submitted a response denying knowledge on the importation of the shipment containing 605 transparent plastic bags of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu.
Three other respondents—Filipino-Chinese businessman Chen Ju Long, alias Richard Chen, and customs brokers Mark Ruben Taguba II and Teejay Marcellana—either appeared in the hearing or sent their lawyers, but were not ready to submit answers.
Investigating Assistant State Prosecutor Aristotle Reyes gave them more time to file their counter-affidavits in the next hearing on September 25.
Reyes said the rest of the respondents who failed to appear before the DOJ—Li Guang Feng, alias Manny Li, and Taiwanese nationals Chen Min and Jhu Ming Jyun—lost their opportunity to answer the charges, and the complaint against them was already considered submitted for resolution.
During the proceedings, Taguba’s lawyer Raymond Fortun questioned the complaint filed by the NBI for being incomplete.
“In this particular complaint, the person whom the drugs came from—Tong Yeng Ping—is not part of the complaint. If there is any person who should be charged, it should be the person who sent the drugs here,” Fortun said.
Based on the NBI’s investigation, Hongfei was previously registered with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) as a forwarder, but his registration expired in 2014.
Despite the expiration, Hongfei continued to operate as an international freight forwarder by engaging consultants who handle the release of goods from the BOC.
In February, Hongfei tapped the services of Li, who is handling the release of his clients’ goods from the BOC.
Li then approached Dong to help him find a broker who will handle the importation of his clients, including Hongfei.
Dong then found Taguba, who agreed to act as a broker for the importation of Li’s clients for the price of P190,000.
Dong, in turn, would charge P5,000 to P10,000 on top of the P190,000.
On May 17 Marcellano lodged the details of the shipment in the BOC and entered EMT Trading as the importer or consignee for the shipment.
Taguba availed himself of the services of Marcellana for the processing of the shipments of EMT Trading from China.
Tatad, according to the complaint, allowed Taguba to use the business name of EMT as importer.
The shipment was assigned a “greenlane” tag by the Selectivity System of the BOC, thus, no physical inspection and further documentary examination was required pursuant to Customs Memorandum Order 28-2003.
On May 23 the shipment was released from the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and was delivered to Hongfei warehouse.
Apart from drug charges, Li, Dong and Taguba were charged with unauthorized practice of customs broker profession under Republic Act 9280 (Customs Broker Act) after it was found they did not have the necessary license from the BOC.