Tuesday, May 06, 2008 John-john ‘coddled’ consignee
FORMER Cebu vice governor John Gregory “John-john” Osmeña is indicted in the case because he allegedly cod-dled and protected the person who owned the shipment of psuedoephe-drine that was seized in 2004.
Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, in the 26-page resolution on the eight-year-old controversy, gave credence to the testimony of two Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) officials that John-john asked one of them to release the shipment.
The resolution and the case information it was attached to, submitted to the Regional Trial Court last Friday yet, accuses Osmeña of violating Sec. 3(ee) of Republic Act (RA) 9165, for coddling. Bail is set at P200,000.
The consignee, Mike Cummings, as well as another foreigner, Dirk Hultz, are also indicted. While they have yet to be seen or heard from, they are charged with importing a drug precursor and are denied bail.
Rep. Pablo John Garcia, meanwhile, told lawyer Edgar Gica to concentrate on his legal arguments to help Osmeña get off the hook instead of sowing political intrigues.
Gica, in an earlier interview, blamed the Garcias and Rep. Antonio Cuenco for “framing up” Osmeña in the pseudoephedrine shipment case.
Challenge
In a telephone interview, Garcia said Gica “has the penchant for blaming the Garcias for everything, we would not be surprised if we will be blamed for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.”
“He has to decide if he is a lawyer or a politician. He failed as a politician, at least he should try to succeed as a lawyer,” Garcia said.
Garcia also challenged Osmeña to show up and explain his side on the allegations.
“Why is it that Atty. Gica is doing all the explaining? Have we heard from him (John-john) since 2004? Why is he out of the country? Why is he not facing the case himself if he has absolutely nothing to do with it? Instead of firsthand information, we are being treated to a secondhand, if not second rate, explanation from Atty. Gica,” he said.
PDEA 7 consultant Paul Clarence Oaminal also defended Cuenco from the allegation, saying the congressman just did his job.
For Cuenco, John-john should instead face the issue to clear his name.
“If he is really innocent, then he will be set free,” he said.
Oaminal said documentary and testimonial evidence linking Osmeña to the 2004 importation of pseudoephedrine prompted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file the information in court.
In charging them, the DOJ relied on the bill of lading that covered the shipment as well as evidence that it was Hultz who paid the lease of the warehouse where it was to
be stored.
Cleared
Other than the three, all other people impleaded during the investigation of the alleged drug smuggling incident are cleared.
These include John-john’s former staff members at the Office of the Vice Governor - Joebert Cuesta, Ma. Rowena Roldan and Rorela Villegas - and others identified as Leah Banal, Malou Legaspi, Michael Emilio Sanchez, Alexander Michael Castro and Susan Bernardo.
The staff members, whose names were reflected in the General Information Sheet of Cummings’ Coastside Ventures Inc., had been indicated as another evidence of the former vice governor’s alleged relations with the consignee.
The decision to indict him is based solely on the testimony of the two Pdea agents.
However, Zuño’s resolution said, this was enough in the face of Osmeña’s “lengthy and circuitous reliance on general denials.”
Police Sr. Supt. Primo Golingay, then the Pdea director of compliance service, alleged that Osmeña met with him sometime in March 2004 at the Pan Pacific Hotel, in Malate, Metro Manila and made the request.
Meeting
Police Sr. Insp. Fritz Adolfo Macariola, for his part, claimed to have witnessed the meeting as part of a surveillance operation ordered by Police Sr. Supt. Ager Ontog. Macariola claimed to be an intelligence operative that Golingay trained.
“A meticulous review of Golingay and Macariola’s testimony show that the fact of the meeting at the Pan Pacific Hotel was categorically proven. The agenda of the meeting, that is, respondent Osmeña’s request for help to release the psuedoephe-drine, was likewise directly established,” the resolution read.
Golingay, now of the Directorate of Police Community Relations of Camp Crame, said he got a call from former Pdea 7 director Gaudencio Pagaling, telling him that Osmeña wanted a meeting. This was after the shipment got seized.
Afterwards, he said, a man who “spoke in English with an American accent” called, identified himself, and asked for a meeting.
Two days later, he said, Osmeña met him at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Malate. The conversation lasted about an hour, during which Osmeña asked if Golingay could release the psuedoephedrine shipment imported by Coastside.
At that time, Golingay said, the shipment was still in the custody of the Bureau of Customs.
Osmeña allegedly indicated that he was willing to give something in return for any assistance.
Macariola, now with the Directorate for Personnel, Plans and Policies Division of Camp Crame, attested to the meeting.
He said he arrived at the hotel around 7 p.m. and went directly to the coffee shop, where the meeting was scheduled.
Golingay arrived and, shortly, a man came over to join him. He identified the man as Osmeña.
According to Zuño’s resolution, the Sec. 3(ee) of Republic Act (RA) 9165 “clearly contemplates a situation where a person uses his influence to shield, harbor, or screen a person whom he has reasonable gounds to know has violated the provisions of the Comprehensive Drugs Act to prevent the prosecution of the violator.”
The testimony of the two Pdea witnesses, he said, tends to show that Osmeña violated the provision.
“Osmeña asked for an appointment with Golingay when he intimated his agenda at the Pan Pacific Hotel to have the psuedoephedrine contraband released. The use of his influence as then Vice Governor of Cebu on the Pdea officers would have resulted in its eventual release... and the failure to prosecute respondents Hultz and Cummings,” Zuño added. (KNR/With RHM/GC)
