Court orders arrest of ex-PDEA exec Marcelino

MANILA, Philippines – A regional trial court has ordered the arrest of Marine Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino, a former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) official, over the drug case filed against him by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The DOJ on Tuesday, December 27, received a warrant from the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 17.

The court dismissed Marcelino’s motion to dismiss charges against him for violating Section 11 (possession of dangerous drugs) of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The charges were filed in January 2016.

The court instead upheld DOJ’s finding of probable cause to indict the former PDEA official.

The department in September partially granted the appeal of PDEA and dismissed the conspiracy charges against Marcelino and his co-accused Chinese national Yan Yi Shou.

The DOJ, however, found basis to charge the two with possession of dangerous drugs.

In their motion filed through the Public Attorney’s Office, the two questioned their January arrest, when they were apprehended by personnel from the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group and the PDEA in a drug bust that seized around P320 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu).

Marcelino also insisted that he was only in the shabu laboratory for a top-secret mission sanctioned by the military, and that he was there on orders from the Intelligence Service Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The marine officer even presented a certificate proving that from September to December 2015, he was sharing intelligence on Army personnel involved in illegal drugs. – Rappler.com