Wanted PNP colonel, yields over multi-trillion shabu lab

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union- A police superintendent ordered arrested by a Regional Trial Court judge after he was implicated in a multi-billion peso drug laboratory case, surrendered Monday to his superior.

Chief Supt. Ramon Gatan, Region 1 police director bared this saying Supt. Dionisio Borromeo, former chief of police of Dagupan City, said Borromeo had already yielded to his superiors in Camp Crame Sunday.

Gatan said the suspect had asked that he be detained in Camp Crame while his case is being heard from the court here.

The warrant of arrest signed by Judge Mary R. Molina recommended no bail.
Borromeo is now under police custody and is presently detained at the PNP Custodial Center, Camp Crame.

However the warrant of arrest of a certain Joselito Artuz also known as “George Cordero”, the person believed to be the financier of the shabu lab is till being hunted down as his warrant is in effect.

Borromeo was tagged protector of the Naguilian drug laboratory. He was identified and implicated by shabu lab caretaker Dante Palaganas and was relieved along with six other police officers who were found to have committed administrative lapses and grave misconduct.

The drug laboratory, raided last July 09, 2008 at Barangay Bimmotobot Naguilian La Union yielded 27 million worth of raw chemicals & equipment and was estimated to produce hundreds of million worth of illegal drugs if the raw product ephedrine was present.

The arrest of Borromeo, a recipient of various awards and medals during his stint, came after RTC branch 33 Judge Rose Marie Alim, has issued his arrest after he was being tagged as protector of the biggest ever drug shabu laboratory busted in Naguillan town in the province.

Also ordered arrested by the court was Joselito Artuz, the alleged financier of the shabu laboratory who is now being hunted by the police. “We will get Artuz at all cost,” vowed Gatan.

In a 27-page resolution, Alim affirmed findings of the prosecutor’s panel here which recommended Borromeo’s indictment in court.

The prosecution panel was composed of Danilo Bumacod, Gaudencio Valdez and Manuel Dulnuan.

Gatan said that the court gave merit to the findings of the “Task Force Bimmotobot,” which he headed to investigate the shabu laboratory.

Earlier, a total of 52 policemen, 17 of whom are commissioned police officers, had been relieved of their posts in connection with the shocking discovery of the multi-trillion shabu laboratory in barangay Bimmutubot, Naguilian town, last July 9.

A graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, Borromeo and et al were charged before the Prosecutor’s office here last July 31. Six Chinese men were also charged.

The arrest of Borromeo came in the wake of revelation by Dante Palaganas, a caretaker of the said shabu lab who tagged Borromeo as one of the police protectors of the laboratory. Borromeo, however, denied the charges.

The shabu lab was earlier used as front for piggery until policemen from the province headed by Sr. Supt. Noli Talino discovered it in a surprised raid that shocked the entire police and community.

The Congressional Oversight Committee in Congress on Dangerous Drugs had inspected the alleged shabu laboratory the other day in line with House investigation being sought by Rep. Tomas Dumpit, Jr. whose district the laboratory was discovered. – With a report from Mar T. Supnad