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Friday, January 28, 2005
Co-owner of shabu bodega surrenders, shares jail cell
By Rose O. Verzosa Sun.Star Staff Reporter
With Mia E. Abellana
THE two businessmen who own the warehouse converted into a shabu laboratory were sent to the Mandaue City Jail yesterday and placed in the same prison cell.
But for security reasons, Andy Ng and Richard Ong’s prison cell is separate from those of the 11 men who were arrested during the raid on the warehouse in Umapad, Mandaue City last Sept. 24.
Ng, 37, was unable to hold back his tears when reporters tried to interview him inside the Mandaue City Regional Trial Court (RTC).
“At least I have a chance to clear my name so that my children’s future will not be destroyed,” Ng said.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) brought Ng at 10:30 a.m. to the court, where his lawyer Romulo Senining was waiting for him.
He was immediately brought to jail after RTC Branch 28 Judge Marilyn Lagura Yap signed his commitment order.
Barely an hour later, Ong also arrived in court, accompanied by lawyer Haide Acuña, where he was met by his new lawyer, Bernardito Florido.
Ong was committed inside the jail at 12:30 p.m.
Bank accounts
In Manila, the Court of Appeals (CA) has frozen bank accounts apparently used in paying the rent for the warehouse, which was turned into a shabu factory.
In a five-page order, the CA’s Eighth Division, through Associate Justice Salvador J. Valdez Jr., issued the 20-day freeze order upon the request of the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
Frozen were bank accounts in Allied Bank of Joseph Yu (also known as Joseph Tiu/Ramon Uy Lim) and Allan Yap Garcia.
“There exists probable cause to support the conclusion that the bank accounts of Joseph Yu and Allan Yap Garcia are being used for the illegal activity of manufacturing the dangerous drugs called shabu,” the CA said in the ruling.
Yu and Garcia were among the 11 men arrested during the raid on the Caps R Us Inc. warehouse owned by Ng and Ong.
The Department of Justice, though, saw no basis to include three women incorporators of Caps R Us in the shabu manufacturing charge.
Meanwhile, irked by comments of radio broadcasters, Chief Insp. Rex Derilo clarified that he did not intentionally delay taking businessman Ng to court last Wednesday.
Surrender
Before taking Ng to the Mandaue City RTC yesterday morning, Derilo explained that he was expecting Ng’s partner Ong to surrender last Wednesday and that he wanted to take them to the court together.
At 11:30 a.m., Ong already sent surrender feelers.
But later on, Ong’s camp called them and said he would surrender after lunch.
“During that time, we already held continuous manhunt operations,” Derilo said.
Ong reportedly called again at 3 p.m. to inform them that he would be changing lawyers.
Derilo said that by 6 p.m., Senining and Manolito Seno withdrew as legal counsels for Ong, so they felt that Ong changed his mind about surrendering.
“I haven’t even slept yet. We were all out looking for him until 6 a.m.,” he said.
Derilo also took exception to comments that Ng received special treatment, saying Ng spent the night at the CIDG 7 detention cell.
For his part, Florido said they opted to submit Ong to the jurisdiction of the court to save time.
He said it would only have been a waste of time if they brought Ong to the police authorities since he will just be eventually brought to the court, which has the sole authority to commit him to jail.
“The surrender was delayed due to my fault because I was out of town so I had no time to explain things to his immediate family,” Florido told Sun.Star yesterday.
Florido said that as early as last September, Ong already intimated to him his intention to hire him as his lawyer, but he was not able to attend to it.
Out of town
He was out of the country for some time and when he got back, he was always out of town. It was only last Tuesday that Ong formally engaged his services and he filed his appearance as Ong’s lawyer before the court yesterday.
Senining, for his part, has already withdrawn as counsel for Ong.
Senining said he will just wait for the Court of Appeals to rule on his petition questioning the filing of information and the issuance of an arrest warrant against his client.
Florido filed yesterday a petition for bail before the RTC.
He said the finding of probable cause for the issuance of the warrant of arrest is just preliminary and is not evidence of guilt.
The charge is non-bailable but since the evidence of guilt against Ong is not strong, then he is entitled to bail, said Florido.
Besides, there is no possibility of flight on Ong’s part because he has multi-million properties and businesses in Cebu.
In a separate interview, Jail Warden Jose Moring said the two men will be treated just like all the other inmates and no preferential treatment will be given to them. (With Sunnex)
(January 28, 2005 issue)
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