Shabu Lab Case: Lawyers of warehouse owners rebuff move for judge to inhibit

The two lawyers of two defendants in the shabu laboratory case yesterday opposed the urgent motion of four defense lawyers for voluntary inhibition of Regional Trial Court judge Marilyn Yap from hearing the cases against suspected drug financier Calvin Tan and 13 others.

Lawyers Romulo Senining and Haidee Acuña, counsels of defendants Andy Ng and Richard Ong, respectively, rebuffed the four lawyers' filing of the motion for inhibition against the judge.

Senining and Acuña argued that the inhibition of Yap will result in further delay to the hearings, a situation which is prejudicial to their clients.

The four defense lawyers, Hector Fernandez, Vicente Fernandez, Eric Carin and Lorenzo Paylado filed a joint motion in addition to a similar motion that Calvin Tan filed earlier and is yet pending in court.

Hector and Vicente, in their joint motion, argued that Yap's finding on the existence of conspiracy between Calvin Tan and Hung Ching Chang or Simon Lao, based on the uncorroborated testimony of Morteza Tamadoni, has no merit at all.

Hector alleged that Tamadoni, an Iranian national, was a government agent who testified but expected a windfall out of the 10 percent share from the seized illegal drug, which may amount to millions of pesos, but whose testimony failed to establish that Tan was the financier.

Senining contested this argument however, saying that, after the prosecution was about to rest its case, his client Ng has been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to file a motion for leave of court to file demurrer to the evidences against him, and this motion for inhibition may stall Ng's move.

The defense argument was hinged on Judge Yap's dismissal of Calvin Tan's petition for bail last March 31. The judge ruled that bail could not be granted because the evidence of guilt against Calvin Tan was strong.

Aggrieved and disappointed by such decision, Tan's lawyer, William delos Santos filed an urgent motion for reconsideration and the motion for voluntary inhibition of Yap.

The four defense lawyers followed suit in yesterday's hearing. But Judge Yap told the defense that she only resolved the bail petition and she did prejudge the case. "I am wondering why you said that I am prejudging the case. I am only resolving the bail petition," she said.

Yap, in her 23-page order, said there was evidence of conspiracy between Lao and Tan based on the testimony of Tamadoni, who said he was the one who supplied to Lao tons of ingredients for shabu manufacturing.

The prosecution panel, led by senior state prosecutor Achimedes Manabat, opposed the motion for Yap's inhibition contending that its filing was contingent upon her denial of Tan's bail petition.

"Any denial of a petition for bail is not a license to inhibit the judge making such findings. The Honorable Judge conducted herself impartially and with cold neutrality in the course of the trial, said Manabat.

The prosecution panel said Tan has no evidence to show that Judge Yap was biased and prejudicial in dismissing the latter's petition for bail bond.

Tan is one of the 14 people indicted for alleged shabu manufacturing inside a warehouse in barangay Umapad and in two other warehouses in barangays Looc and Paknaan.

The raided warehouses were found hosting the biggest shabu laboratories ever in southeast Asia. Seized in the raid were 675 kilos of shabu worth P1.5 billion and chemicals enough to produce 15 tons more of the banned substance. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan