JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Wednesday that they are planning to put the witness in the Senate probe on the P6.4-billion worth of smuggled shabu under its Witness Protection Program (WPP).
At a chance interview Thursday, Aguirre said the DOJ is ready to give customs broker Mark Taguba provisional coverage once he applies formally to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Aguirre clarified, however, that he will need to assess first if Taguba is qualified to be provided full coverage of the WPP.
Taguba in the last Senate hearing into the smuggling of the P6.4 billion worth of shabu last May accused at least five officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) of taking bribes to facilitate shipments.
The officials he linked in corruption controversy in the BOC were Deputy Commissioner Teddy Raval, Manila International Container Port District Collector Vincent Philip Maronilla, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Services Director Neil Estrella, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Services officer Teddy Sagaral, Imports and Assessment Service Director Milo Maestrecampo.
Also identified by Taguba were a certain Major Gutierrez who is already deceased, Maita Acevedo and another individual he named as alias Jason.
The mentioned officials, in previous media interviews, denied taking bribes to facilitate questionable shipments. (VoxPop Philippines)
