Saturday, September 15, 2007 House witness free, but at risk By Katrina N. Tabanao Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BERNARD Liu, who testified against two Cebu businessmen in a House committee investigation on illegal drugs, is now out of jail and is thinking of suing those responsible for his detention.
Cebu Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Fortunato de Gracia granted his demurrer to evidence, a pleading for the court to dismiss the case for lack of proof.
But Liu is not yet considered a free man, in the truest sense of the word.
Despite his acquittal, he still has to stay with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and will be provided two security escorts.
Cebu City South District Rep. Antonio Cuenco, who picked up Liu from the Cebu City Jail, said Liu’s life is in danger.
Cuenco worries that Liu will suffer the same fate as his fellow whistleblower, Ananias Dy, who was shot dead on July 8 last year while on his way home to Nivel Hills, Cebu City.
In their testimony before the House committee then chaired by Cuenco last August 2002, Liu and Dy linked brothers Wellington and Peter Lim to the illegal drugs trade, a charge the brothers denied.
Liu testified he had carried 40 kilos of shabu from Hong Kong to Cebu, allegedly for the Lim brothers. That admission, however, became the basis for the justice department’s decision to charge Liu with importation of illegal drugs.
Lawyer Oliveros Kintanar, counsel for the Lim brothers, assailed the court’s decision.
In a two-page order issued yesterday, de Gracia agreed with the defense panel’s argument that the prosecution’s evidence was not sufficient to warrant Liu’s conviction.
Liu’s camp earlier argued that the affidavits offered by the prosecution relied on hearsay.
They said that without Liu’s testimony affirming his affidavit, the presumption of innocence prevails.
In his order, Judge de Gracia quoted the Supreme Court as saying that “when a confession is made outside of court proceedings, it must be accompanied by evidence of the corpus delicti to be sufficient for conviction.”
The corpus delicti in this case would be the importation documents and the kilos of shabu Liu claimed he imported.
But for Kintanar, corpus delicti was proven because Liu admitted to importing shabu, during his congressional appearance.
“I might have some disagreement with the decision, but I’m disagreeing without being disagreeable. Right or wrong, we have to respect the decision of the court,” said Kintanar in an interview over DyLA.
Four criminal cases were earlier filed against Liu for drug trafficking.
But Justice Secretary Merceditas Gutierrez ruled that Liu’s admission, made during a House inquiry, did not merit the filing of the cases against him.
In the same resolution, Gutierrez directed the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor to withdraw all four charge sheets filed against Liu, three of which are pending.
Earlier, Regional Trial Court Branch 13 Judge Meinrado Paredes decided to dismiss one case against Liu.
Judge Silvestre Maamo Jr. ordered the cases consolidated, while one more case is still with Judge Enriqueta Belarmino.
Judge de Gracia Jr., on the other hand, decided to proceed to trial, and issued a warrant of arrest against Liu.
Liu went into hiding and was arrested sometime last January.
Cuenco blamed what he described as a “defective” Witness Protection Program for what happened to Liu and Dy.
He promised to provide Liu with P5,000 as a monthly allowance and to help him find a job.
The lawmaker also said he is willing to support Liu if the latter will decide to file a case for civil damages against lawyer Elias Espinosa, the one who sued him.
Despite everything, Liu said, “Wa ko magbasol nga mi-testigo ko (I don’t regret that I testified).” (KNT)
