Sandiganbayan hear's case of fiscal's missing evidence

Assistant Cebu City prosecutor Rosendo Brillantes was presented before the Sandiganbayan 4th Division yesterday morning during the hearing of the case in relation to the loss of more than 200 grams of shabu under his custody.

Brillantes was charged for the loss of the shabu.

"It was not my cabinet. I was only a squatter there," Brillantes told reporters, referring to the place where the shabu was reportedly kept.

He said that he was only a "temporary" occupant in that office where the shabu was in custody, as there was yet no available space for him being a newcomer that time.

In the afternoon, the defense presented two more witnesses, assistant regional state prosecutor Vicente Mañalac and administrative officer Joel Pasculado.

Mañalac was presented as he was head of a panel of three prosecutors who made the fact-finding investigation on the case as ordered by then regional state prosecutor Reynaldo Masangkay. The panel was organized to find out how the shabu disappeared.

Apart from Mañalac, members of that three-man panel were city prosecutor Nicolas Sellon and assistant provincial prosecutor Federico Pansoy.

Mañalac was presented to explain what they discovered during the inspection of the place where the shabu was kept.

Brillantes, who was the third fiscal to handle the case before it was turned over to former Assistant Prosecutor Leonardo Carreon, implicated his then secretary Teresita Corocoto for the loss of the shabu. The more than 200 grams of shabu was seized from Allan Arriesgado during a buy-bust operation in May 2000.

Brillantes insisted the shabu was hidden inside Corocoto's steel cabinet.

Corocoto, when presented last May when the Sandiganbayan was here to conduct the hearing of cases, denied having seen the said substance. Both Brillantes and Corocoto were charged for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for allegedly losing the shabu.

Corocoto's case was dismissed for lack of probable cause.

The disappearance of the shabu led to the dismissal of the criminal case against Arriesgado, a suspected bigtime drug peddler and member of the Bebot Tabar drug syndicate.

Yesterday's hearing was presided by Justices Jose Hernandez, Rodolfo Ponferrada, and Gregorio Ong who is the chairman.

Carreon was the fourth fiscal to have handled Arriesgado's drug case before he was acquitted. Brillantes handled it before Carreon.

The Sandiganbayan is set to continue hearing of cases at the Palace of Justice today. - Liv G. Campo