Police blamed for grant of bail to Chinese chemists

In a sudden turn of events, the controversial granting of bail to five Chinese chemists of a makeshift shabu laboratory in Pasig City was blamed yesterday on the failure of the arresting policemen to appear during court hearings.

Judge Rodrigo Lorenzo, of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 266 was forced to grant the five Chinese chemists bail after the arresting officers led by Chief Inspector Napoleon Villegas failed to attend three hearings despite being summoned, a court staffer said.

The court staffer expressed dismay at why Villegas was abroad each time the hearing of the suspects’ petition for bail was scheduled and returned to the country only afterwards.

"We expect the police to blame us, but the lapse is on the part of the arresting officers," said the court staffer who refused to be identified.

When reached for comment, Narcotics Group (NarcGroup) chief Director Efren Fernandez said there appears to be an orchestrated effort to blame his men for the fiasco in granting bail to the five Chinese chemists.

"I expected that scenario," said Fernandez." I have a gut feeling that they will blame us for the granting of bail to the suspects."

He expressed confidence, however, that the truth will come out soon as Chief Inspector Eduardo Villena, the NarcGroup’s legal officer, has already started a probe on what went wrong and why the suspects, Chua Chuy Li, 37; Xingfu Wang, 31; Joey Lu Cruz, 34; Huang Hong Wei, 34, and Tomas Lu, were granted bail.

As a result of the suspects’ being granted bail despite being charged with a non-bailable offense, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez sacked Pasig City assistant prosecutor Conrado Tolentino. He was replaced by DOJ prosecutor Pablo Formaran.

Perez is also investigating reports that P12 million changed hands for the speedy release of the suspects from jail. But as of yesterday, Lorenzo, who is suffering from arthritis, continue to avoid the media. The court staffer said Lorenzo will not issue any statement regarding the case for the "purpose of objectivity on hearing the case."

The court staffer said Lorenzo issued a bench warrant for Villegas and his companions to force them to appear in court but they repeatedly ignored it. Tolentino also coordinated with Fernandez but the NarcGroup chief failed to send his men to testify in court.

For his part, Fernandez said initial results of Villena’s investigation showed that the court’s summons were misrouted. He said he had asked Tolentino to address the summons directly to his office so he could compel his men to attend the court hearings but was surprised when, three days later Lorenzo granted the suspects bail. – Non Alquitran