Court orders arrest of anti-piracy violators

The concerted anti-piracy campaign of the government and the entertainment industry scored a major victory when the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court sustained the issuance of a warrant of arrest for seven individuals accused of several violations of the intellectual property code.

The order was contained in a decision handed down on Jan. 31 by Judge Rizalina Capco-Umali, presiding judge of Mandaluyong RTC Branch 212, which denied a Department of Justice motion to withdraw its complaint against two of the seven respondents, thus paving the way for their arrest. In her decision, Capco-Umali said a previous DOJ dismissal of the case against the couple George and Jazmin Ang was not binding on the court, declaring that there were valid findings of existence of probable cause.

Others accused in the criminal complaint filed by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI), through its president, Danilo Olivares, were Cathy Ang, Lee Chung Sang, Lam Kwok Chan, Choy Ma Tak and Ricky Ala, who were charged as a result of a raid conducted on June 9, 2000 at 92 Araullo St., Mandaluyong City by National Bureau of Investigation agents led by Supervising Agent Dominador Villanueva of the ASAP-IPRD Division.

State Prosecutor Leo Dacera III, last Nov. 27, 2000, found probable cause against the seven accused for 297 counts of violation of Section 208 in relation to Sections 216 and 217 of R.A. 8293, or the Intellectual Property Code, and subsequently denied the motion for reconsideration filed by them. However, based on a manifestation and motion to defer proceedings filed with the DOJ in view of a motion to quash the search warrant filed with the Mandaluyong RTC, and a certification dated Oct. 6, 2000 by the ARD Elfren Menesis Jr., chief of the AFCCD-NBI on the lack of evidence linking George and Jazmin Ang to the complaint, the Secretary of Justice issued a resolution on Oct. 15, 2001 finding no probable cause to indict the Ang couple.

Acting on a motion to quash information filed with the Mandaluyong RTC Branch 212 by the respondents’ lawyer, Justice Undersecretary Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez ordered Dacera to withdraw the DOJ information filed against the couple in a motion filed on January 21, 2002, which was denied by Judge Capco-Umali.

Additionally, Judge Amalia Dy, presiding judge of Mandaluyong RTC Branch 213, in several cases related to the same raid, issued warrants of arrest for the seven respondents for another 236 counts of violation of the Intellectual Property Code, while Judge Edwin Sorongon issued a warrant of arrest for the other 297 cases filed in his sala by PARI’s legal counsel Atty. Isagani Cruz, of the Cayetano Sebastian Ata Dado Cruz Law Offices.