By Vanne Elaine Terrazola
The Senate has turned over Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban
(ALVIN KASIBAN / MANILA BULLETIN) Guban was fetched by a team from the DOJ's Witness Protection Program (WPP) at the Senate past noon of Thursday. Senate President Vicente Sotto III has also confirmed this development. Sotto said he was informed by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Gen. Jose Balajadia that Guban was taken to the DOJ around 12:20 p.m. by DOJ personnel led by WPP operations chief Benito Talabucon. "We have documents of the turnover and receiving copy by Chief Talabucon," Balajadia told Sotto in a text message, which the Senate chief forwarded to reporters. Guban was considered a key witness to the P11-billion shabu smuggling controversy in the Bureau of Customs (BOC). He was placed under the DOJ's witness protection program. He was earlier detained in the Senate for his supposedly inconsistent statements during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's investigation on the missing P11-billion shabu shipment that slipped through the BOC's watch. The Blue Ribbon panel withdrew the contempt charges later and placed Guban under "protective custody" of the Upper Chamber. The DOJ has refused to divulge details of Guban's whereabouts now that he is under its custody.
Former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban(ALVIN KASIBAN / MANILA BULLETIN) Guban was fetched by a team from the DOJ's Witness Protection Program (WPP) at the Senate past noon of Thursday. Senate President Vicente Sotto III has also confirmed this development. Sotto said he was informed by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Gen. Jose Balajadia that Guban was taken to the DOJ around 12:20 p.m. by DOJ personnel led by WPP operations chief Benito Talabucon. "We have documents of the turnover and receiving copy by Chief Talabucon," Balajadia told Sotto in a text message, which the Senate chief forwarded to reporters. Guban was considered a key witness to the P11-billion shabu smuggling controversy in the Bureau of Customs (BOC). He was placed under the DOJ's witness protection program. He was earlier detained in the Senate for his supposedly inconsistent statements during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's investigation on the missing P11-billion shabu shipment that slipped through the BOC's watch. The Blue Ribbon panel withdrew the contempt charges later and placed Guban under "protective custody" of the Upper Chamber. The DOJ has refused to divulge details of Guban's whereabouts now that he is under its custody.