(Eagle News) — A Manila court has ruled former Customs intelligence agent Jimmy Guban should be detained in the Manila City Jail and not in the National Bureau of Investigation.
In ordering Guban’s transfer from the NBI detention center where he has been detained since the Department of Justice removed him from the Witness Protection Program, thereby effectively denying Guban’s motion, Judge Bernardita Santos of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 35 said he could not prove his claim he would not be secure in the jail.
Guban had said he feared for his life because of the powerful personalities he implicated in last year’s smuggling of illegal drugs hidden in magnetic lifters in the country.
He said retired Major Lito Pirote, who was implicated in the smuggling as well, was abducted last month and has been missing ever since.
“Moreover, an accused cannot decide on the place where he should serve his preventive imprisonment, otherwise, to allow each and every arrested person to make a choice, would result in confusion and disorder,” the court said.
Apart from Guban, indicted over the illegal drugs in the magnetic lifters discovered in Cavite and Manila were dismissed police official Eduardo Acierto, and six others.
