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Saturday, April 23, 2005
Defense: No warrant shown in shabu lab raid
By Rose O. Verzosa
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BUSINESSMAN Richard Ong admitted the existence of a lease contract with Chinese national Joseph Yu for one of his warehouses in Barangay Umapad, Mandaue City.
But the foreign national denied this for “lack of knowledge.”
The prosecution may have to rely on British national Hung Chin Chang, who is being eyed as a state witness. He admitted there was a lease contract between Yu and warehouse owners, Ong and Andy Ng.
The defense, for its part, claimed that no search warrant was shown to their clients during the raid that led to their arrest.
These were some of the information gathered from defense lawyers yesterday, during the pre-trial conference of the case involving the operation of the shabu laboratory in Umapad.
With the wads of documents and several samples of the various chemicals seized in the warehouse, it took the prosecution over three hours just to complete their stipulation of facts and marking of exhibits inside Regional Trial Court Branch 28.
Eleven men, mostly of Chinese descent, were arrested during the raid on Caps R’ Us warehouse in Umapad, Mandaue City last Sept. 24.
All of them, along with suspected mastermind and financier Calvin de Jesus Tan and the two warehouse owners, were charged with illegal manufacturing of drugs.
Only Ng and Tan were not included in yesterday’s pre-trial conference because the two have not yet been arraigned. Tan is still detained in Hong Kong for a drug possession case, while Ong is applying for bail.
Yu, for his part, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment yesterday. He was not arraigned with the other suspects because he had no need for an interpreter.
The prosecution surrendered to the court yesterday the 10 passports belonging to the accused, which were seized during the raid.
Yu, through his counsel Melanie Marie Sanoria, he admitted the existence of a blue Mitsubishi Adventure (GSN 176) registered in Yu’s name and a white van (GRZ 812) registered in the name of Ramon Uy Lim.
However, he denied being known by the aliases Joseph Tiu or Ramon Uy Lim.
No warrant
Yu, who is also facing a separate charge for the operation of the shabu laboratory in Barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City, was reportedly the same person who leased the Paknaan warehouse—using the name Ramon Uy Lim.
Some defense lawyers admitted that a joint police team indeed raided the warehouse, which led to the arrest of their clients.
But the lawyers of all those who were arrested during the raid denied that the raiding team was armed with a search warrant issued by a Quezon City judge.
They said their clients were not even shown a copy of the search warrant.
Ong’s lawyer Joan Sarausos Largo, for her part, said her client did not know about the raid.
Lawyer Allan Legaspi, who represented Cebuano Joseph Lopez, insisted that his client was not among those arrested in the Umapad warehouse.
Lopez was arrested near the port area in Cebu City, said Legaspi.
Personnel of the PNP Crime Laboratory, headed by Chief Insp. Myra Areola, brought to the court for marking all the samples of the chemicals seized during the raid.
(April 23, 2005 issue)
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