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Sunday, May 22, 2005
Court restricts Mandaue shabu lab suspect's P77M
CEBU CITY -- The Court of Appeals (CA) has finally issued an order freezing an estimated P77 million in bank accounts of suspected drug financier Calvin de Jesus Tan in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.
Representative Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south) on Saturday said the CA released the order last Thursday.
Cuenco believes the order has already been forwarded to the office of Hong Kong Government Counsel Wayne Walsh, who represented the Philippines as prosecutor in Tan's extradition hearing last April 29.
The CA's order came after Walsh urged the Philippine Government to secure a freeze order, to keep the cash from being slipped out.
The Hong Kong Government cannot control Tan's bank accounts without the freeze order from the Philippine court.
Tan, a 30-year-old Filipino of Chinese descent, allegedly has eight bank accounts in the former British colony amounting to HK$11 million or P77 million.
He was arrested with a huge amount of cash in different denominations and some illegal drugs in Hong Kong in late September last year-just days after the Sept. 24 raid on shabu laboratories in Barangays Umapad and Paknaan, Mandaue City.
At least of two of the 11 arrested men in the Umapad raid have identified Tan as their financier. They are facing an illegal manufacturing of drugs case before the Mandaue City Regional Trial Court.
Tan also reportedly has four more bank accounts in Macau and two others in Guandong, China.
"They're the fruits of the crime he committed in the Philippines. Thus, these should be confiscated in favor of the state," said Cuenco, House committee on dangerous drugs vice chairman.
Cuenco said it's just a matter of time until Tan, who has been detained in Lai Chi Kok reception center in mainland Kowloon, will be flown to the country to face a drug trial in Mandaue City.
Tan failed to file an appeal within 15 days before a higher court, to contest the Hong Kong Eastern Magistrates Court's decision to surrender him to the Philippines, said the congressman.
"I even expect that he will be deported to the country early next month," Cuenco said.
The return of Tan will be finalized once Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang signs an order officially turning him over to the Philippine Government.
Magistrate Allan Wyeth, the presiding judge, signed the order of committal during the extradition hearing last April 29. (GC)
(May 22, 2005 issue)
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