MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is studying whether there is basis for pressing charges against the Madrigal family-controlled Fuerte Holdings Inc., owner of a property in Ayala Alabang Village that was apparently converted into a “shabu” factory by five Chinese tenants.
“Our legal team is studying all options right now,” PDEA public information chief Evangeline Almenario said when asked if Fuerte Holdings could be held liable for the illicit drug operations on the one-hectare property on Acacia Avenue.
She said the legal team would meet on Monday to assess available information. She declined to say whether PDEA had talked to or was planning to talk to lawyers or representatives of Fuerte Holdings.
Asked about PDEA’s protocol regarding the owners of properties used in illicit drug operations, Almenario said: “It depends. If the landlords knew of the drug activities, then they would be liable. Otherwise, not.”
Early Friday, PDEA agents raided the house, arrested the suspects and seized truckloads of drug paraphernalia and equipment from the “medium-scale” laboratory allegedly used to manufacture methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu.
Investigators discovered that the house leased by the suspects for P260,000 a month was registered in the name of Fuerte Holdings, a company controlled by the late philanthropist Consuelo Madrigal-Collantes.
Almenario said the five suspects, who all hail from Hong Kong, would undergo inquest proceedings.
“We had to use interpreters because some of them speak Cantonese, others Mandarin. But based on their passports, they all came from Hong Kong,” she said.
The five were identified as Lam Ka Chun, 51; Ken Ming Chao, alias Lam Tse Kin, 49; Kwok Chi Keung, 42; Choi Yiu Chun, 33; and Choi Yiu Kit, 33.
They will be charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, particularly with regard to the sections penalizing the manufacture and possession of illegal drugs and drug-making equipment.
Almenario said the PDEA needed to use four trucks to haul all the confiscated materials from the property, including finished shabu products, drums containing controlled precursors and chemicals and high-end laboratory equipment. An inventory had not been completed as of Saturday because of the sheer volume of materials.
“Based on the laboratory equipment we found, the estimated capacity of the facility is 10 kilograms per production cycle which takes about two to three days,” said PDEA Director General Jose Gutierrez Jr.
Fuerte Holdings was reportedly one of the companies whose ownership was being contested by Collantes’ niece, former senator Jamby Madrigal.
The childless Collantes died on March 24, 2008. In her will, she left her estate to her husband, Manuel, a former foreign affairs minister, nieces Ma. Susana Madrigal and Gizela Gonzalez-Montinola and grandnephew Vicente Gustav Warns.
Also Saturday, Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone urged the Department of Justice and Bureau of Immigration to immediately issue a hold-departure order barring the five Chinese suspects from leaving Manila.
“I am making this call because the BI in the past administration reportedly allowed the deportation of Chinese nationals who were arrested in a shabu laboratory in Aurora province and in Subic,” Evardone said in a text message to the Inquirer.
Evardone lamented that while Filipinos arrested in China were being executed, the Philippines allowed Chinese nationals caught in illegal drug activities here to go scot-free.
“This is totally unfair,” he said, adding such a situation had contributed to the demoralization of some of anti-illegal drugs personnel in the country.
Malacañang, for its part, called on owners of properties that are either rented or leased to thoroughly acquaint themselves with those they do business with to make sure they were not criminals, such as those arrested in Ayala Alabang.
Undersecretary Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokesperson, said over state radio dzRB: “It shouldn’t be all about transactions.” With reports from Cynthia Balana and Norman Bordadora