Former Customs exec in P6.8-B smuggled ‘shabu’ stays in Senate — Gordon
A FORMER Customs intelligence officer, a key witness, to the P6.8 billion “shabu” smuggling controversy will stay at the Senate even after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his arrest, the chairman of the committee investigating the fiasco said on Thursday.
SEN. Richard Gordon, who heads the blue ribbon committee, said on Thursday that the Senate could not turn over Jimmy Guban to the Philippine National Police (PNP) until he was finished with his investigation.
“With all due respect to the President, I heard him correctly, we can’t turn over Mr. Guban right away because still continuing with the hearings,” Gordon said in a press conference.
He said that Congress–Senate and the House of Representatives–is a co-equal branch of government. The other is the Judiciary.
“I am in constant touch with DoJ (Department of Justice). This is a very serious case that involves a lot of personalities who are doing heavy, heavy drug smuggling. Kaya nag-iingat po tayo (That’s why we are being very careful),” he said.
Gordon said: “I reiterate I respect the President but we do follow certain rules. And part of that is to make sure that the status of the Congress as an equal branch of government is respected.”
“So, Guban will stay in the Senate until he becomes part of the witness protection program,” he said.
Guban, who had worked at the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, was among officials linked to drugs purportedly found in the magnetic lifters in August, in a report released to Malacañang reporters by Duterte on October 9.
Guban testified in September before a Senate hearing on the P6.8-billion smuggled shabu shipment, where he was cited for contempt for allegedly lying to the blue ribbon committee.
The committee was able to establish that Guban used a “scavenger,” Joel Maritana, to sign an affidavit that would make him appear as the final consignee of the SMYD shipment that contained illegal drugs.
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