MANILA - An anti-narcotics official on Tuesday claimed to have seen how customs agents mishandled a seized shipment of "shabu."

The 4 crates that held the drugs were left open in a warehouse, leaving it "contaminated," said Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-National Capital Region Director Wilkins Villanueva.

"I was thinking, what kind of operation are we going to do now? Nakabuyangyang na yung droga (The drugs were just lying there)," Villanueva told a congressional hearing.

"Lahat ng drugs na yun, contaminated dahil lahat ng tao naghawak, lahat ng tao nagselfie dun sa drugs," he said.

(All the drugs there are contaminated because everyone was touching it. Everyone was taking selfies with the drugs.)

Villanueva said he was tipped off about the delivery of a P6.4 billion "shabu" shipment from China to the Philippines last May.

He said he went to a warehouse in Valenzuela where he found the crates of "shabu."

• Faeldon: 'Neglect of duty' found in P6-B shabu smuggled from China

Villanueva said he wanted to do a "controlled delivery" of all crates of illegal drugs to the intended recipients as part of a possible entrapment operation.

He said Customs Intelligence chief Neil Estrella initially agreed to his proposal but Faeldon turned it down.

He said Faeldon wanted only 1 crate, instead of all 5, to be delivered for the operation, believing it was enough evidence to file charges against the suspects who were waiting for the shipment for hours.

The PDEA official recalled Faeldon repeatedly consulted a younger, fair-skinned woman about the delivery.

Upon questioning, Faeldon admitted he was consulting his fiancée who does not work in government.

"The lawyer that was with me at that time is my fiancée. She is not in the government. The declaration of Director Villanueva is correct but the thing is this, it was already dark in the evening and supposed recipients of this was waiting as early as morning," he said.

Faeldon said he wanted to bring only one crate for the controlled delivery after he got information that the suspects, who were waiting for the crates since morning, were already suspicious.

"Now what they want to do is to bring back all these drugs again to all the containers and bring all five crates to the area. I asked my fiancée is one container enough to convict these?" he explained further.

Villanueva said the Customs chief should have listened to him.

"Sir, kasi ang problema, pag anti-drug operation, makinig kayo sa PDEA. Ang problema nagmamagaling-magalingan tayo dito wala tayong alam. One crate is not possible for controlled delivery and cannot be used as evidence for controlled delivery operations," he said.

(Sir, the problem is, in anti-drug operations, listen to the PDEA. The problem is, we pretend to know everything even if we don't. One crate is not possible for controlled delivery and cannot be used as evidence for controlled delivery operations.)

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