Court rejects Dante Tan’s plea to travel

The Pasig City regional trial court denied yesterday the request of presidential ally and BW Resources Corp. majority stockholder Dante Tan that he be allowed to travel abroad to attend to his businesses.

Judge Briccio Ygaña of Branch 153 said Tan’s travel request should be turned down since he is not yet arraigned. He said Tan should wait until Jan. 16, the day of his arraignment, before seeking permission again.

In a two-page order, Ygaña said Tan has "not yet been arraigned," which simply means the court has yet to "acquire jurisdiction over him." This, despite the fact that Tan and co-accused Jimmy Juan and Eduardo "Moonie" Lim Jr. had already posted bail.

Under the rules of court, the posting of bail of an accused is an implied recognition of the court’s power to hear the case and assume jurisdiction over the parties. So was the filing of the travel plea.

Tan, according to his lawyer, Agnes Maranan, was supposed to leave for Hong Kong yesterday to attend to some business functions. She added her client is also scheduled to leave for Indonesia on Jan. 17.

Maranan earlier said Tan will not flee the country. She vowed her client is willing to face the stock manipulation charges filed by the Department of Justice against him, Juan and Lim.

The BW officials were indicted for allegedly manipulating the shares of the company in the Philippine Stock Exchange in October 1999, thus creating artificial stock sales that caused the price of BW shares to skyrocket by more than 5,000 percent.– Delon Porcalla