MANILA, Philippines - Suspected big-time rice smuggler Davidson Bangayan was arrested yesterday by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for an unrelated offense of electricity pilferage while attending a Senate hearing on rice smuggling.
The NBI agents picked up Bangayan on the basis of an amended October 2013 arrest warrant where he was listed as David Tan.
While the hearing by the Senate Committee on Agriculture was going on, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima served notice to Bangayan that he would be arrested as the NBI was able to secure an amended warrant from the Caloocan City regional trial court.
He was released after posting P40,000 bail at the Manila RTC Branch 20 yesterday afternoon.
Before De Lima made the announcement, the committee on agriculture made a ruling citing Bangayan in contempt for lying during the hearings.
Committee chairman Sen. Cynthia Villar said her panel also decided to file perjury charges against Bangayan in court.
Apart from charging Bangayan with perjury, the committee also asked the Department of Justice to place him on the watch list of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and for the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel his passport.
De Lima revealed that Bangayan is already on the watch list of the BI and that she is in possession of various sworn statements linking Bangayan to Tan in connection with rice smuggling.
The NBI had to call off an earlier move to arrest Bangayan using a warrant issued by Caloocan Judge Lorenza Paculdo because the latter had specifically stated that the warrant was for David Tan “who is not Davidson Bangayan.”
De Lima said that the NBI followed up its request for amendment of the arrest warrant with the RTC of Caloocan yesterday and was told by the executive judge that the original warrant would be acceptable because of additional information presented to the court proving that Tan and Bangayan were one and the same person.
NBI chief Virgilio Mendez said they were given the go-signal to arrest Bangayan yesterday morning.
The NBI was able to secure a statement from the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) that Bangayan and Tan were one and the same person in relation to a case filed against the businessman for violation of Republic Act 7832 or the Anti-Electricity and Electric Transmission Lines/Materials Pilferage Act of 1994.
Apart from the statement of Meralco, De Lima said that the NBI made a manifestation before the court reiterating its argument that Bangayan had already admitted to being Tan in his 2005 libel complaint against former Federation of Philippine Industries head Jesus Arranza.
The same affidavit of Bangayan was brought up by Senate Majority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday when he moved to hold Bangayan in contempt for lying about his identity.
Bangayan again repeatedly denied being Tan, saying he never meant to say that he was Tan in his affidavit against Arranza and that he had even signed the affidavit as Davidson Bangayan.
Villar was initially hesitant to cite Bangayan in contempt but after hearing the testimony of Davao CityMayor Rodrigo Duterte about Tan and Bangayan being the same person, she said she became convinced there was basis for the contempt charges.
In his testimony, Duterte said that he started looking into the smuggling of rice in Davao last year when Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares sought his help in tracking down rice smugglers.
Duterte said he got help from the intelligence community in Davao in identifying personalities in the city involved in rice smuggling.
He stressed that all his contacts had branded Tan as being involved in big-time rice smuggling operations in Davao.
Duterte said that he went a step further and got his intelligence contacts to put a face on Tan.
In his testimony yesterday, Duterte presented a photocopy of a photograph, which he said was that of Bangayan.
He said everyone in Davao knows Tan as a major figure in rice smuggling in the country. “If anyone wants to import (rice) then they go to David Tan,” Duterte said.
Bangayan’s lawyer Benito Salazar said he was not optimistic about his client getting fair treatment from senators.
“Maybe we can get a fair trial in court but in other venues, no,” Salazar said.
Mendez declined to say if Bangayan’s arrest could affect a separate investigation into his alleged rice smuggling activities.
“Is he involved in rice smuggling? That’s what we are working on,” Mendez said.
The companies of Davidson
Information culled by the Senate committee on agriculture and food showed that Davidson Bangayan aka David Tan is a stockholder of the following companies:
Adolphe Inc.
Okinoshima Resources Inc.
Okinoshima Recycling Inc.
Okinoshima Metals-Minerals Inc.
Silver Dragon Holdings Inc.
Records also showed that Bangayan, Emmanuel Santos and Eugene Pioquinto are common stockholders of Silverlade Import Export Trading; Davidson Star Publishing Inc. and Tristar Asua Petroleum, Inc.
Other companies listed under the name of Bangayan and Julius Mangupag are:
Silver Dragon Agri-Chem
Win Legend Import Export, Inc.
Riverwalk Development, Inc.
Primestar Realty and Development Corp.
Nexis Resources Inc.
Orissa Realty and Development Corp.
Primorsko Realty Inc.
Newman Realty and Development Inc.
Ashwood Reality and Development Inc.
Lenswood Reality Inc.
Silver Dragon Property Mgmt. Group Inc.
Megawati Resources Inc.
Advanced Slemetal Inc.
Silver Dragon Holdings Inc.
(From Philstar.com)