Thursday, April 10, 2008 De Gracia says he’ll issue this week ruling on King’s move to quash warrant
JUDGE Fortunato de Gracia yesterday closed oral arguments on the motion filed by businessman Regan King to quash the search warrant used in the raid on his Mandaue City warehouse.
De Gracia, executive judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), said he will issue the ruling by the end of the week. Still, the question on whether the warehouse had a license still stands.
Two officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) were called to court to resolve the issue and were questioned in the hearing that began early in the morning and lasted past noon yesterday.
Regional Director Danilo Bonabon and Provincial Manger Ramon Astilla issued three separate certifications on the warehouse.
Conflicting certifications
Two of the certifications, signed by Bonabon, were dated April 1 and said the warehouse did not have NFA authority. Only one, however, was attached to the warrant application that de Gracia had granted to authorize the raid.
The third, signed by Astilla and issued last April 3, said it did.
The issue of whether or not the warehouse had NFA authority to operate is crucial. If it did, then the storage of stocks in warehouse 52 of the Mandaue North Central Castelex Compund is valid.
If not, then the rice storage activities there is illegal and the stocking may be deemed hoarding. Moreover, it means the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was right in securing a search warrant and raiding it last April 2.
Astilla, in yesterday’s hearing, said the warehouse had the needed documents.
Astilla, who was called as witness upon the request of Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo, said the application was dated Jan. 28, 2008. Carillo is serving as King’s lawyer.
Astilla said the NFA acted on the application quickly by inspecting the storage facility.
But NBI Director Medardo de Lemos showed him a copy of the lease contract during cross examination.
The lease contract, signed by King and Mariano C.J. Martinez, was dated Feb. 22 and, according to NBI agents, cast serious doubts on the authenticity of the license
and registration application papers.
De Lemos, in an interview after the hearing, refused to comment when asked if it meant the papers Astilla said existed were fraudulent.
But King, in a later interview, said the lease contract might have been dated Feb. 22 but they had been using it even before that date.
Suspicion
In a press conference, he said he had access to the facility because the King family is part of the corporation that owns the entire compound.
“I was going to pay good for two months that February,” he said.
King said he blames the NFA for the mess. He said he called Director Bonabon a few days before the NBI raid.
He said he’d suspected that the earlier raid on an empty Mandaue City warehouse by the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group targeted him.
“I knew we were going to be the next target and suspected that the raid would either come from the PASG or the NBI,” he said.
And when he called Bonabon again after the raid, the official allegedly said his hands were already tied.
Bonabon, for his part, said he didn’t know that the warehouse the NBI had wanted to search was the same one King had papers for.
He said the NBI specified a name when it asked for a certification - that of Martinez. When license division chief Jaime Ang said no license was issued to him, he signed the April 1 certification.
He confirmed he signed two certificates that day. The first bore Martinez’s name and the declaration that no license was issued to him.
The second, he said, was issued after the NBI returned with another request—to include warehouse 52 of the Mandaue North Central Castelex Compound.
Bonabon, during direct examination by de Lemos, admitted that he didn’t conduct a separate search to find out if a license or registration had been issued on warehouse 52.
He admitted that he merely asked Ang if the certification was to refer to the same person - Martinez. And when the subordinate answered affirmatively, he signed it.
Bonabon said he only knew of Astilla’s April 3 certification a day after the raid. He said Astilla, as provincial manger, had the authority to issue the certification.
Carillo, however, placed the blame on the NBI and, during the press conference, said the agency failed to conduct “due diligence” in verifying their information before securing a warrant from the court.
During the hearing, he grilled Special Investigator Arnel Pura and had him admit that he didn’t enter the compound when they conducted the surveillance operation, as required by the warrant application.
Pura, who took the witness stand, said he didn’t enter the compound because doing so might give the surveillance away but stressed that other intelligence operatives
were able to do so.
In fact, he said, they were able to take snapshots of container vans and rice being unloaded.
Carillo also questioned him why he applied for a warrant in the name of Martinez when, during the surveillance operation, they didn’t see Martinez in the area. He said Pura relied too much on informants. (KNR)
