Sandiganbayan denies Atong’s US trip

The Sandiganbayan’s special division denied yesterday businessman Charlie “Atong” Ang’s request to leave the country for the United States due to the absence of any justifiable ground and urgency to grant his motion to travel abroad.

Ang, a former gaming consultant and a co-accused of former President Joseph Estrada in the plunder case, had asked the Sandiganbayan for permission to visit his family as well as to check on his business, which he left in Los Angeles, California, and settle all his financial obligations.

He vowed to immediately return to the Philippines and appear before the court whenever required.

The anti-graft court’s special division, composed of Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Francisco Villaruz, said it denied Ang’s motion due to lack of merit.

The prosecution panel, led by Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, said allowing Ang to travel to the US may open the flood gates for the violations of certain conditions of his probation. 

Ang, through his lawyers Alfredo Villamor and Ruth Castelo, requested the court to allow him to travel to the United States to visit his family and stay with them for about 20 days, from July 15 to Aug. 5.

Since his extradition to the Philippines in November 2006, Ang said he has not seen his children, whom he left in the care of his wife in Las Vegas.

He pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of corruption of public officials in relation to indirect bribery, and that the plunder case against him was dropped.

Ang was sentenced to imprisonment of two years and four months to a maximum of six years and later granted probation.

He said he has incurred debts because he has been out of work following his apprehension in the United States in 2002. – Sandy Araneta