PDEA chief Dionisio Santiago and DDB chair Vicente "Tito" Sotto III

President Arroyo has stepped into the controversies surrounding two high-profile illegal drugs cases and alleged bribery involving the Department of Justice.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered the reinvestigation of the case of the largest shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) laboratory bust in the country. She also ordered an investigation and the filing of charges, if warranted, against those who allegedly attempted to bribe officials in the so-called "Alabang Boys" drug case dismissal.

Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chair Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said that the president ordered the reinvestigation of the Naguilian shabu lab bust after a closed-door meeting with the La Union clergy Tuesday.

Last July 9, authorities were able to discover in Naguilian the biggest drug laboratory.

An estimated P300 billion worth of drug chemicals and equipment were found and confiscated.

Authorities claimed that it was the biggest drug bust ever in the country. Six people were recommended charged in the case, including a senior police official and three policemen.

But after a few months, the cases were dismissed against five of the six suspects.

“How was it possible? There was a large volume of evidence, how come?” said Sotto. "The president ordered a reinvestigation."

Sotto also said San Fernando Bishop Artemio Rillera asked for the return of the case from the Department of Justice (DOJ) main office in Manila to the province. He said the bishop told Mrs. Arroyo they had more confidence in the prosecutors in La Union.

In a phone call to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, President Arroyo ordered that the reinvestigation be done by the La Union provincial prosecutor's office.

Sotto said the DOJ panel took jurisdiction of the case from provincial prosecutors after several controversies hounded the case. The DOJ panel then recommended that cases against some participants be dismissed.

Sotto said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) believes other alleged participants should have been charged as well.

The former senator said DDB and PDEA will monitor the progress of the case.

For his part, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief director-general Jesus Verzosa revealed that a task force has been formed by the police to handle the case, saying they have filed cases against five police personnel and secured warrants of arrest for them.

Probe bribery allegations

President Arroyo also ordered an investigation into the bribery allegations surrounding the dismissal of the case of the "Alabang Boys," Richard Santos Brodett, Jorge Jordana Joseph, and Joseph Ramirez Tecson, three men from wealthy families arrested for alleged illegal drug trafficking. They were arrested after buy-bust operations last September.

Sotto said, however, that the “Alabang Boys” drugs case was not comprehensively taken up during Tuesday's closed-door meeting in La Union.

The PDEA has alleged that state prosecutors were paid P50 million to dismiss the case against the three suspects.

The cases against the three were dismissed following a DOJ resolution last Dec. 2.

Ret. Gen. Dionisio Santiago, PDEA chief, said Tuesday that he is sure someone from the DOJ received bribe money in exchange for the dismissal of the drug case against the three.

"We have to look at the paper trail, starting from the fiscal, then we work our way up. I'm not at liberty to tell you right now, but at the proper time, we will tell you what we know," PDEA chief Dionisio Santiago told ABS-CBN's "Umagang Kay Ganda."

The three rich kids were nabbed by PDEA agents in separate drug buy-bust operations in Ayala Alabang and Araneta Center in Quezon City on September 20.

Santiago said in a recent Umagang Kay Ganda interview that Brodett, one of the suspects, had verbally admitted to his father, while in the presence of PDEA agents, that the drugs found in his possession were his.

The PDEA chief said Brodett also pointed to the police the drugs in his car, which were used by the agency as evidence.

The items allegedly seized from the three boys included 60 ecstasy tablets, small bags of marijuana, and sachets of cocaine.
 
The case was dismissed early this month by the DOJ due to lack of evidence.

‘Paid off’

Santiago said that before the case dismissal, PDEA’s public information office allegedly received a text message from an alleged member of the family of one of the suspects.

“The message said: ‘Ano pa ba ang problema ng General Santiago na ‘yan eh nabayaran na siya,’” the PDEA chief said.

Santiago, who denied receiving any amount from the suspect's family, said the message was a “clear” sign that someone, though not from PDEA, received bribe money.

The PDEA chief said that field agents also got bribe offers through text messages. He said some messages mentioned clearly the amount of money being offered for bribe.

Santiago also revealed that in one of the messages sent to PDEA, the sender was very sure that the “Alabang Boys” will be released before Christmas.

"There are many different messages which reached the operating unit, even the legal department. There were also threats, but some were very clear: they're confident that they (Alabang Boys) will be out by December, before Christmas," he said.

‘No need to bribe’

The father of one of the suspects, radio show host Johnny Joseph, popularly known as Johnny Midnight, however denied that there was bribery involved in the dismissal of the case against his son.

“We have a strong case...no need to bribe,” he said.

While he admitted that his son, Jorge, is a “social user” of illegal drugs, he denied that his son is a drug pusher, adding that his 22-year-old son just graduated from college.

“Have you seen my son?...He is not a pusher, he cannot be,” he added.

Joseph said he still hopes that amid the controversy on the bribery allegations, his son would be exonerated and released.

The Senate had said it will look into the alleged multi-million peso bribery against the state prosecutors.

‘Should have sought review’

Gonzalez, meanwhile, said he has already ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to look into bribery allegations in his department.

The justice secretary had earlier ordered the reinvestigation on the case against the three young suspects, effectively nullifying a release order.

Speaking to ABS-CBN News Channel, Gonzalez also said Santiago should have filed a petition for the DOJ to review the case if he was not satisfied with its outcome.

“What I am saying is, I’m surprised Director Santiago has made a big fuss about this but he has not yet filed a petition for review with me,” said Santiago. -- With reports from RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News