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Sunday, December 23, 2007
Court acquits owner of bodega used as 'mega shabu lab'
CEBU CITY -- The Regional Trial Court (RTC) has dismissed all criminal charges against the owner of the Barangay Umapad bodega that housed the Mandaue City "mega shabu laboratory."
Judge Marilyn Yap said "despite the vastness of the exhibits offered," she found nothing to implead Richard Ong in the alleged drug operation of the other respondents.
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Ong previously submitted a demurrer to evidence, which asked the court to determine if there was anything that the prosecution is building up that could pin him down.
Represented by lawyers Bernardito Florido and Haide Acuña, Ong was granted bail last April 12, 2005.
"Five volumes (of records) later and the prosecution as presented several witnesses and offered quite a volume of objects and documents as evidence and also rested," the court said.
"Despite the vastness of the exhibits offered - "A" to "HHH", nothing has been added, increased or supplemented to prove Richard Ong's criminal liability and complicity in the manufacture of illegal drugs or in the operation of the shabu laboratory," it added.
"Conspiracy is not presumed, it must be proved as convincingly as the criminal intent itself," it further said.
Ong was charged together with businessman Andy Ng as co-conspirators in the shabu laboratory operation that the police discovered and closed last Sept. 24, 2004 following their Red Crystalline operation.
Also charged with them were Joseph Yu, Hung Chin Chang, Siew Kin Weng, Liew Kam Song, Lin Li Ku, Bao Xia Fu, Fu Tiao Yi, Tao Fei, Liu Bo, Allan Yap Garcia, Joseph Lopez and other John Does.
Ong and Ng supposedly provided the warehouse that the other accused allegedly turned into a shabu manufacturing plant.
The prosecution obtained and presented in court the lease contract for the warehouse as proof against them.
The contract bore Ong and Ng's signatures as lessors, with one Nicky Lopez as lessee.
Sec. 26 of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, states that "any attempt or conspiracy to commit unlawful acts shall be penalized by the same penalty prescribed for the commission of the same as provided under this Act."
But Ong argued that the prosecution failed to establish that he knew about what was going on or that he knowingly tolerated it.
He used the same argument when he filed a motion for bail.
"In this case, there is clearly no proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt as there is even no strong evidence of guilt against accused Ong," read his demurrer petition.
According to Ong, key prosecution witnesses like Police Senior Supt. Amado Marquez of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and three Red Crystalline operatives, all of whom testified to have conducted 24-hour surveillance on the warehouse, never mentioned seeing him in the area where the bodega was.
"The prosecution panel likewise presented the testimonies of witnesses Hung Chin Chang, alias Simon Lao, and Tamadoni Morteza, both of whom are insiders who gave an intimate account of the crime from its inception to its culmination."
"But neither Hung nor Morteza pointed to accused Ong as the drug syndicate's local contact," added the demurrer.
"In fact, Morteza, who helped procure the warehouse, went on to refer to a certain local contact he called Amigo and the Far Eastern Drug Company (as contact) but never implicated Richard Ong," it further stated.
Ong had said the only evidence against him are those already discussed during the bail hearing.
"If the prosecution's evidence (was) not even enough to keep accused Ong in detention for the duration of the trial, then the same evidence would be insufficient to convict Ong beyond reasonable doubt," his lawyers argued.
"In criminal procedure, as well as in constitutional law, mere accusation is not synonymous with guilt... No matter how strong it may be, suspicion or suspicious circumstances are not a substitute for proof and evidence," they added. (Karlon N. Rama of Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (December 23, 2007 issue)
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