John-John's lawyer: DOJ's motion mere scrap of paper

CEBU - The lawyer of former Cebu Vice Governor John Gregory Osmeña has ignored the motion for reconsideration filed by the Department of Justice on the dismissal of the case against his client, calling it empty and defective, and is not worth of the court’s attention.

Instead of opposing the motion and arguing against the prosecution panel’s assertion that the court failed to give weight to the chronology of events that linked Osmeña to the illegal importation of the P6 billion worth of drug precursor in 2004, lawyer Edgar Gica just filed a manifestation for the court to consider it as a “mere scrap of paper.”

Gica said the motion was defective because it did not follow the rules of procedures under the Rules of Court. Under the rules, he said the motion should have been set for hearing.

The panel of prosecutors led by Archimedes Manabat allegedly failed to set a date for hearing in the motion making it fatally defective.

Gica said the prosecutors could also no longer correct the defect because of the expiration of the 15-day period.

He explained the defective motion for reconsideration speaks of how ignorant the members of the panel are on the Rules of Courts.

“Basin tingali ang ilang naantigohan mao lang ang pagpangluto og kaso,” Gica said in an interview over dyLA.

He reiterated that the case against his client was just pure harassment, insinuating that the people who insisted on filing the case may have an agenda. “Tingali gusto gyud nila nga moduol mi aron motanyag mi,” he said.

Gica did not answer the arguments of the prosecution panel, saying there was nothing new to it. He said that the allegations of his client’s staffers being used as incorporators of the Coastside Ventures Incorporated and the use of his address were old issues.

The panel of prosecutors earlier assailed the November 24 ruling of Regional Trial Court judge Eric Menchavez dismissing the case against the former vice governor for alleged failure of the prosecution to establish evidentiary link between Osmeña and the alleged drug traffickers, Mike Cummings and Dirk Hultz.

The prosecutors said that while they did not proffer any direct link between the accused and the alleged drug traffickers, the circumstances allegedly pointed to Osmeña as the protector and coddler of Cummings and Hultz.

According to the prosecutors, the court failed to appreciate the significance of the fact that the consignee, Cummings and the Coastside Ventures, Inc. used Osmeña’s address.

The prosecutors likewise pointed out that the officers of the Coastside Ventures are also employees of the vice governor’s office, the post that Osmeña then held. — Fred P. Languido/WAB (THE FREEMAN)