Barbers hits Pasig RTC for releasing 5 Chinese in illegal drugs manufacture

Sen. Robert Barbers criticized yesterday a Pasig City Regional Trial Court judge for allowing five Chinese nationals, who were reportedly behind the operation of a raided makeshift shabu laboratory, to post bail for their temporary liberty.

Barbers, chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, said Judge Rodrigo Lorenzo should be made to explain by the Supreme Court with his decision, which could send the wrong signal to other suspected drug lords.

The senator also took note of reports that Lorenzo will leave for the United States after allegations came out that P12 million changed hands for the speedy release of the five Chinese chemists.

Records show the five accused were arrested by the Regional Intelligence Operations Office of the Philippine National Police last year in a makeshift shabu laboratory in Pasig City where six kilos of shabu and several drums of chemicals used for the manufacture of shabu were seized.

"The fact that these suspects were arrested with enough evidence to establish their crime coupled by their previous admission to police authorities of their role in the illegal drugs operation should already warrant that the suspects cannot post bail.

I don’t understand how and where Judge Lorenzo based his dubious decision," Barbers said, – Aurea Calica