RTC executive judge orders raffling of case vs. John-john

Regional Trial Court executive judge Fortunato de Gracia has finally ordered the raffling off of the criminal case against former vice governor John Gregory “John-john” Osmeña.

A staff of the Office of the Court Clerk informed The Freeman yesterday that Osmeña’s case for allegedly protecting a suspected drug smuggler will be included in the raffle on Monday to determine the judge who will handle it.

Osmeña’s counsel Edgar Gica asked De Gracia yesterday morning to hear the motion to determine the existence of probable cause against his client, but the executive judge advised him to wait for the assignment of the case to a judge.

De Gracia said that once the case against John-john is assigned to a particular judge, that judge will be the one to hear the arguments of the accused.

Gica has insisted that there is no probable cause to indict John-john for allegedly protecting two alleged drug smugglers named Mike Cummings and Dirk Hultz, the accused importer and consignee of the 1,500 kilos of pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in the making of shabu.

Assistant city prosecutor Mary Ann Castro, designated by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales as DOJ’s representative in the Bureau of Immigration, has been closely monitoring also the development of controversial pseudoephedrine case.

Castro asked a court staff to provide her with photocopies of all documents that support the filing of the criminal case against John-john. “Kaso man god ni nga gi-file sa DOJ mao nga ako ning i-monitor para i-report nako sa Manila,” she explained her reason for monitoring.

Osmeña had earlier contended that his indictment to the case has no probable cause thus this should be dismissed.  He accused the panel of prosecutors of committing grave abuse of discretion and intentionally depriving him his right to due process.

The prosecutors filed the case in court without giving him a copy of their resolution in advance, Osmeña said, adding that he has the right to have a copy of the resolution, and the time to question, either by a motion for reconsideration or petition for review, the propriety of their action.

Osmeña was accused of protecting the drug smugglers allegedly responsible of bringing here P3.9 billion worth of pseudoephedrine, but he countered that the accusation was done only to destroy his integrity considering that he was a candidate for governor during that time.

The DOJ has recommended a P200,000 bail bond for Osmeña’s temporary liberty pending the resolution of the case in court.  But until now the former governor is still abroad.  — Rene U. Borromeo/RAE