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Friday, November 05, 2004
Shabu suspects fire their lawyer
By Rose O. Versoza
With Garry Cabotaje
CEBU CITY -- A language barrier and the lack of legal counsel hampered a team of prosecutors handling Thursday day's clarificatory hearing of the 11 suspected shabu manufacturers in Mandaue City.
Lawyer Daryll Amante attended the hearing as counsel for most of the suspects, but midway through the hearing, he ended up having no client at all because the suspects, one by one, told the prosecutors that they did not want him to represent them.
"They don't want Atty. Amante. They will look for another lawyer," said accused Allan Yap Garcia, who served as interpreter for his co-accused, most of whom are foreigners.
Of the 11 accused, only three have lawyers. Lawyers Lawrence Paylado and Eric Carin are representing Siew Kin Weng, 25, and Liew Kam Song, 40, while lawyer Allan Legaspi is representing the 33-year-old Cebuano Joseph Lopez.
Those who have no lawyers are Joseph Yu, 41, Hung Chin Chang, 40, Lin Li Ku, 35, Bao Xiafu, 35, Wu Tiao Yi, 33, Tao Fei, 34, Liu Bo, 31, and Allan Yap Garcia, 33.
Senior State Prosecutor Archimedes Manabat initially asked the others when they could hire their own lawyers but lawyer Paul Oaminal, legal counsel for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said the accused's "propensity for changing lawyers will delay the proceedings."
House probe
For its part, the House committee on dangerous drugs will decide on Monday whether to hold a congressional inquiry on the operation of the mega shabu lab in Mandaue.
Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south) is confident majority of the committee members will vote in favor of the planned inquiry, saying they have to tackle many aspects that led to the operation of the shabu lab.
Cuenco said the committee members will not be influenced by calls not to hold the congressional hearing.
He also confirmed there were attempts to exclude Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano if ever the House inquiry pushes through.
Among other issues, Cuenco, chairman of the House committee on foreign relations, said they will ask the Bureau of Immigration in Cebu why undocumented foreigners managed to sneak into the country.
At the hearing, both PDEA and lawyer Paylado said they found a hard time looking for interpreters considering that the accused are of different nationalities and spoke different languages like Amoy, Mandarin Fookien and Bahasa Malay.
Four of the accused are Chinese nationals, two are Malaysians and two are Taiwanese.
Paylado said they also had a hard time talking with their clients in private.
Shabu labs
Mandaue City Jail Warden Jose Moring yesterday assured the lawyers and the prosecutors that he will see to it that the accused will be given privacy whenever they confer with their lawyers.
The 11 men are facing preliminary investigation for two cases of violation of Section 8, Article 2 of Republic Act 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
They are accused of maintaining the shabu laboratories in Barangays Umapad and Paknaan.
The facilities were raided last Sept. 24 and 25.
Huge amounts of shabu, precursor chemicals and lab equipment were seized.
Amante had asked the panel comprising Manabat and State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, who are both based in Manila, and Mandaue City Prosecutor Ferdinand Peque, to give him 10 days to talk to his clients again.
He said he already filed several motions in their behalf before the Mandaue City Regional Trial Court, where one of the cases is now pending, and he has not been paid for his services.
"I sympathize with you," said Manabat.
Yu, for his part, said they were still negotiating with Amante but even before they could agree on anything, including his professional fees, Amante already proceeded in representing them.
Wanted: proof
The prosecutors gave the accused 10 days or until Nov. 15 to submit their counter-affidavits for the case concerning the Umapad shabu laboratory.
As for the Paknaan shabu factory, PDEA is given until Nov. 22 to submit additional evidence to support their charge against the 11 suspects.
PDEA 7 Director Amado Marquez said they still have to submit the complete laboratory examination of the chemicals found in the Paknaan laboratory.
Businessmen Andy Ng and Richard Ong, who are among the incorporators of Caps R Us, which owns the warehouse in Umapad that was converted into a shabu laboratory, also appeared during the hearing Thursday.
Ng earlier submitted his counter-affidavit denying any knowledge about the illegal drug operation of Yu, who leased one of the three warehouses inside the Caps R Us compound.
Ong also submitted his own counter-affidavit yesterday corroborating Ng's claim.
It was Ong who got the call of Yu sometime in November last year, expressing interest in leasing their warehouse.
Ong showed Yu the warehouse and the lease contract was finalized last Jan. 6 at a monthly rental of P100,000.
Ng, Ong, Athena Ng-Uy, Azucena Ng and Andrienne Ong and his wife maintained that PDEA still has to prove that they had prior knowledge that Yu put up a shabu laboratory in their warehouse and that they consented to this.
(November 5, 2004 issue)
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