MANILA - The Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court has denied the appeal of the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissing the smuggling charges against several individuals over the P6.4-billion shabu shipment case last May.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Thursday the Valenzuela RTC has upheld its earlier decision, though he has yet to read the grounds for the rejection.

"I have been informed that our motion for reconsideration was denied. So we will question the trial court’s ruling before a superior court," he said.

Guevarra said they will challenge the RTC's ruling before the Court of Appeals.

"We maintain that the transport of illegal drugs is a distinct offense from illegal importation, which ends at the customs area," he said.

Guevarra is also optimistic the ruling will not affect a separate indictment against the accused, including Customs broker Mark Ruben Taguba II, before the Manila RTC for importation of dangerous drugs.

"The illegal importation case pending at RTC-Manila is not affected by this adverse ruling of RTC-Valenzuela in the illegal transport case," he said.

In January, state prosecutors asked the Valenzuela RTC to reverse its order dismissing the criminal charges against against Chen Julong aka "Richard Tan” or “Richard Chen,” Li Guang Feng aka “Manny Li,” Dong Yi Shen Xi aka “Kenneth Dong” or “Yi Shan Dong," Eirene Mae Tatad, Teejay Marcellana, Chen I-Min, Jhu Ming Jyun, Chen Rong Huan, Taguba, and 3 other unnamed individuals.

The RTC Branch 284 granted the motion of Taguba, Tan and another co-respondent to dismiss the transportation and delivery of illegal drugs case over prosecutors' alleged forum shopping.

Forum shopping is the practice of lodging multiple cases against the same party in the hopes that one of the proceedings would result in a favorable decision.

The Department of Justice then filed the same case before the Manila RTC and lodged another case of transportation and delivery of illegal drugs at the Valenzuela RTC Branch 284.

The filing of multiple cases "clearly bears the hallmarks of forum shopping, betraying the prosecutors' intent to secure favorable judgement from different courts," the Valenzuela court said in a decision dated April 23. - with reports from Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News