MANILA, Philippines — Commissioner Isidro Lapeña yesterday hinted that a drug syndicate could be behind what he claimed was a demolition job against him, with a P20-million fund to remove him from the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Lapeña said syndicates might be hurting from his crackdown on smuggling and they are funding the attacks just to unseat him from the bureau.

He said the syndicate “has a very extensive operation to support their shipment of bringing illegal drugs into the country. They want to neutralize whoever it is that would stand in their way.”

Lapeña said that the well-funded and coordinated attacks against him might have started after the BOC ran after those behind the unauthorized withdrawal of 105 containers reportedly of ceramic tiles from the Port of Manila (POM) last March.

He also did not discount the possibility that BOC-Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Deputy Collector Lourdes Mangaoang, who has been claiming that he might have ignored early reports about the methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu concealed inside the four magnetic lifters, might have been used by the drug syndicates either “wittingly or unwittingly.”

“I will never destroy my name protecting these drug syndicates. I have served this government and this country for 34 years without compromising my principles and highest regard for integrity in public service. For those people or groups working jointly to oust me, I know who you are,” he added.

He had also requested that Mangaoang be subjected to a lifestyle check to be conducted by the Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) of the Department of Finance (DOF).

He also questioned the timing of the continuous attacks against him. It happened while he was on a personal trip abroad to celebrate the 91st birthday of his mother.

Lapeña also believes that he and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director general Aaron Aquino might have been pitted against each other by the drug syndicate, which would benefit if the government’s top officials involved in the campaign against illegal drugs would engage in a blame game.

“I do not blame the PDEA chief. I now realized that both I and PDEA chief Aquino may have been misled. Mukhang scripted ang buong pangyayari. A script concocted by the same drug syndicates. A script that perhaps some actors of the syndicates are still following to this day. We should not fall for this cloak-and-dagger style of disinformation,” he added.

He said he is willing to hold a dialogue with the PDEA leadership and refocus on fighting against their common enemy, illegal drug syndicates.

He also wondered why former police Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, who was among those being linked to the shipment of the magnetic lifters, accompanied Aquino during the discovery of the two magnetic lifters jointly operated by the BOC and PDEA at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

“I really wondered what was Acierto’s business during the operation. I will not be surprised that (former PDEA deputy director for administration Ismael) Fajardo and Acierto are feeding him false information about the shipment, and this is the reason why DG Aquino stated, a day after the opening, that he has a gut feeling ‘na may tone-toneladang shabu na pinapapasok sa bansa ang Bureau of Customs’,” he added.

He has also not been remiss in conducting an investigation into the importation of the two magnetic lifters where 355 kilos of shabu with an estimated value of P2.4 billion were found at the MICP, and the four empty magnetic lifters in Cavite where PDEA said had contained a ton of shabu.

The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) has also recommended the filing of administrative charges for gross negligence of duty and 30 days of suspension against two personnel of the X-ray Inspection Service (XIP) for their failure to subject the shipment to physical examination.

It turned out that aside from the four units of magnetic lifters, there were also two “components” inside the 40-foot container van that were not declared.

When asked if there was a possibility that the two “components” not declared also contained illegal drugs, BOC spokesman Erastus Sandino Austria believed that there is only a “small probability” that there were contraband goods.

As for XIP chief Czae Carrie de Guzman, the commissioner said that she might be cited but only on the grounds of command responsibility.

Lapeña said for as long as he enjoys the trust and confidence of President Duterte he would stay on at the bureau and that “I would hit them (drug syndicates) left and right. I will continue with that kind of determination until now.”

House probe

The House of Representatives committee on dangerous drugs resumes today its inquiry into the allegedly missing shabu shipment worth at least P6.8 billion.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, committee chairman, decided to call another hearing amid the heightened word war between Lapeña and Aquino.

Barbers said the two officials should have by now finished their respective investigations into the controversy and should be ready with their findings.

He lamented that the incident happened in August and Lapeña and Aquino had promised at two previous hearings to submit their reports.

Lapeña insists that the supposed shipment did not enter the country, citing swab tests conducted by PDEA’s own personnel on metal lifters supposedly containing the contraband. The tests yielded negative results.

On the other hand, Aquino asserts that there was a shipment as detected by his agency’s illegal drug-sniffing dogs.

Mangaoang claimed that X-ray images show that the metal lifters found by PDEA agents in a warehouse in Cavite indeed contained shabu.

In the past days, Mangaoang has been on a high-profile media offensive against Lapeña. She has been reassigned due to supposed poor performance, which she denies.

As of its last hearing on Sept. 27, the Barbers committee could not make heads or tails of the testimonies and other pieces of evidence it has so far gathered.

“So far, we have not found the corpus delicti or concrete evidence of a crime because the alleged shabu shipment is still missing. So it’s still speculative for us to say that illegal drugs were smuggled into the country,” he said.

He said even Mangaoang’s supposed evidence consisting of “darkened portions” of X-ray images of the magnetic lifters is not conclusive proof that the contents were illegal drugs.

“But on the basis of circumstances surrounding the alleged shipment, the documentation, the video footage showing Chinese-looking men in the Cavite warehouse, the arrest of a Hong Kong Chinese with one kilo of shabu and other circumstantial evidence, it would be correct to assume that illegal drugs indeed entered the country,” he said.

The Barbers committee was seeking a “consignee-for-hire,” identified as Marina Signapan, owner of SMYD Trading, who handled the shipment.

The names of three persons of interest came up in the last hearing: Aquino’s PDEA deputy Fajardo, dismissed police drug enforcer Senior Supt. Acierto and former Customs intelligence agent Jimmy Guban.

The three supposedly collaborated in handling alleged intelligence information on illegal drugs that were to arrive in the country last August. Aquino and Lapeña have relieved Fajardo and Guban of their posts.

“They are the three prominent figures behind this shipment, whatever it contained. This is the scariest thing here – when officers who are supposed to enforce our laws and protect our people are themselves linked to alleged illegal activities,” Barbers said.

Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop said the committee should seek out all those whose names have been mentioned in connection with the controversy so it could have a broad understanding of what really happened. – With Jess Diaz, Emmanuel Tupas