Shabu lab case trial: Prosecution loses chance to present three witnesses

The prosecution panel in the shabu laboratory case suffered a big blow after Regional Trial Court judge Marilyn Yap yesterday ordered it to formally offer its documentary exhibits, and technically stopped its chances of presenting three more vital witnesses.

Judge Yap's order might forcedthe prosecution to rest its case and subsequently allow the defense lawyers to present their own witnesses and evidences.

The prosecution was about to present three witnesses in the hearings the past two days but it failed to do so to the satisfaction of the court. The three were Police/Supt. Ahdzar Albani, Danilo Martires, and one of the accused Hung Ching Chang who is also known as Simon Lao.

Judge Yap yesterday directed Albani to explain within 24 hours why he should not be arrested for failure to testify in court, the other day and yesterday, as scheduled.

Albani said he sent a fax message to the court informing that he could not appear because he was down with hypertension. But Yap was unsatisfied and ordered Albani instead to explain the matter in writing.

In the case of Hung, or Lao, the judge earlier told the prosecution that it could only present him as witness if the court grant's the motion to discharge him as state witness to the case.

In last Thursday's hearing, Judge Yap denied the prosecution's motion to put Hung as state witness because of its failure to send notices to parties involved.

Judge Yap echoed the statement of defense lawyer Hector Fernandez that such motion must be put in the "limbo of unpleasant memories."

The prosecution panel, led by senior state prosecutor Achimedes Manabat, was supposed to re-file the motion but it virtually has no way to do it anymore after Judge Yap ordered it to formally offer its exhibits.

Lao's lawyer, Danilo Yap, earlier said the testimonies of his client is very vital to the prosecution because only the latter could present the money trail that allegedly funded the shabu laboratory operations including the bank accounts of suspected drug financier and co-accused Calvin Tan.

Tan is among the 14 people, mostly foreigners, indicted in the case, which also involved Richard Ong and Andy Ng-both out on bail-owners of the warehouses in barangays Umapad, Looc and Paknaan that were allegedly used as shabu laboratories.

Authorities had raided the Umapad warehouse, which was found to be the biggest shabu laboratory ever discovered in Southeast Asia.

Seized in the raid were 675 kilos of shabu worth P1.5 billion and enough chemicals to produce 15 tons more of the banned substance. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan