MANILA (UPDATED) - Authorities on Monday enforced the freeze order on properties of personalities linked to the smuggling of suspected shabu seized at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) a few years ago.

The properties of suspects Julie Hao Gamboa, and Ruben and Teresita Taguba are located in Barangays Lourdes and Sto. Domingo in Quezon City, and are estimated to cost at least P70 million, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said.

“Itong mga properties na ito, sinubmit namin sa Court of Appeals para ma-freeze. At ultimately, ang objective natin dito, na-freeze yung properties,” Atty. Mel Georgie Racella, Anti Money Laundering Council’s (AMLC) executive director, said.

(We submitted these properties to the Court of Appeals for a freeze order. Ultimately, our objective is to freeze these properties.)

The freeze order covers 173 bank accounts and credit accounts and insurance policies, to include 17 properties and five motor vehicles of the suspects, PDEA chief Wilkins Villanueva said.

On May 31, 2019, the PDEA filed a criminal complaint before the Department of Justice against Chinese national Xu Zhi Jian, alias Jacky Co, and 16 others for the alleged importation of P1.8 billion worth of shabu. The contraband was intercepted at the MICP.

Xu, tagged as the owner of the drug shipment, allegedly managed 70 bank accounts with no registered businesses and properties under his name, according to the AMLC. Gamboa, and father and son Ruben and Mark Taguba were tagged as cohorts.

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Gamboa was also identified as Xu's co-accused in the smuggling of 276 kilograms of shabu at the MICP in 2018. The AMLC said it has found 81 bank accounts under Gamboa’s name which transacted millions of pesos.

Former Customs police officer Ruben Taguba and his son Mark were also found to have 21 properties and had hundreds of millions in bank transactions using 21 different accounts.

The older Taguba was found maintaining a joint account with Julie Hao Gamboa which received 108 transfers amounting to more than P51 million, according to the PDEA.

In May 2017, Mark became the subject of PDEA’s investigation on the shipment of 602 kilograms of suspected shabu in a warehouse in Valenzuela City.

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“Na-discover namin na wala siyang properties. So saan galing yung kanyang properties? So yun po ang ongoing investigation. And magfa-file din kami ng case for money laundering,” Racella said.

(We discovered he had no properties. So where did these properties come from? Investigation is ongoing. We will also file a case for money laundering.)

As of writing, all suspects remain at large.

“Yun ang ating pinagtutuunan natin ng pansin na makuha sila. On the process tayo, baka next month, magsara naman tayo ng properties doon ni Taguba,” Villanueva said.

(We will focus on apprehending them. And maybe next month, we can freeze the properties of Taguba.)

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