Saturday, August 19, 2006
Cebu legislator 'gave money' to drug suspect
By Rose O. Versoza
CEBU CITY -- After accusing Representative Antonio Cuenco of trying "to influence the court," lawyer Gloria Dalawampu accused the congressman of handing money to British national Hung Chin Chang inside the courtroom last month.
Dalawampu said in court Friday that she and her staff saw Cuenco handing money to Hung after the foreigner stepped down from the witness stand last July 21. Hung was presented to testify on his application to be discharged as accused and to become a state witness.
"I deny that vigorously... That is a preposterous charge. It is as wild and as reckless as the wind," Cuenco later told reporters.
Hung's lawyer Danilo Yap said his client never received any money from Cuenco (Cebu City, south), who is vice chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs.
Yap said the two merely shook hands at that time.
"It's a sign of civility. I shook his hand, that's all," said Cuenco.
Besides, Cuenco said there was no reason he will give money since Hung doesn't need it and certainly not from him and not inside the courtroom.
He said Dalawampu's allegations are "intriguing against honor" but he prefers "not to quarrel with women."
Dalawampu is representing Tan, who is accused of masterminding and financing the shabu laboratories in Barangays Umapad and Paknaan in Mandaue City that were raided on Sept. 24 and 25, 2004.
Eleven men were arrested and hundreds of kilos of shabu, chemical ingredients and equipment were seized during the raids.
Tan was extradited from Hong Kong last year, after he was arrested in September 2004 for a separate drug case.
Tan and Hung are detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.
"When he gave the money, he did not even exert effort to hide it," Dalawampu told the court Friday.
"I don't have any reason to lie. That is what I saw," she said.
She found Cuenco's act "distasteful" and she does not want the same incident to happen again.
Last Monday, Dalawampu filed a motion before Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 28 to order Cuenco "to refrain from issuing public statements which could unduly influence the court" in the two drug manufacturing cases against Tan, Hung, the 10 other arrested men and two warehouse owners.
Dalawampu was reacting to a news article of The Freeman published last Aug. 8 where Cuenco expressed his optimism that the court will discharge Hung as accused and will allow him to become a state witness.
She said in her motion that the congressman's statements are sub judice because these were made before the court could rule on Hung's pending motion.
"With his stature and position in the government, he is undoubtedly enjoying a high level of prestige," she said in her motion.
"His distorted and highly-opinionated and baseless statements should not be countenanced insofar as he is conditioning the mind of the public and tending to influence, if not suggesting, to this court that Hung Chin Chang should be discharged as a state witness because he is allegedly the least guilty among them all," Dalawampu said.
RTC Branch 28 Judge Yap, in Friday's hearing, admitted that she had not read the news article referred to by Dalawampu until it was brought to the court's attention.
The court will not be influenced by the article either, said Judge Yap.
"If you want to be fair, both parties should refrain from making statements either in the form of letter (to the editor) or interviews," said Yap, after she noted having read Dalawampu's letters to the editor earlier printed in Sun.Star Cebu and The Freeman.
Nevertheless, Judge Yap said she will ask Cuenco to comment on Dalawampu's motion, especially after the lawyer's allegations on money changing hands.
Cuenco, who arrived shortly after Dalawampu manifested her allegations against him, later told reporters that he is entitled to be present in the hearing because it is a public proceeding and he cannot be denied that just because he is a congressman.
As for the statement he made in the news article, Cuenco said he merely answered a fair question as a lawyer and having been present during Hung's open court testimony.
"What I made was a fair comment on what I thought was a probable outcome on the motion to discharge Simon Lao (Hung) as an accused and make him a state witness. It was never my intention to influence the court," he said.
Meanwhile, Hung admitted Friday that accused Cebuano Joseph Lopez was not inside the warehouse during the raid and he doesn't know where Lopez was at that time.
He said only 10 of them were arrested in the warehouse.
When cross-examined by defense lawyer Allan Legazpi, Hung said he never saw Lopez inside the warehouse nor talked to him, not even once.
He said he never hired Lopez nor paid for his services. All he knows is that Lopez was the driver of co-accused Allan Yap Garcia. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(August 19, 2006 issue)
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