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CEBU CITY, Philippines ? A regional trial court (RTC) has given a special panel of prosecutors 10 days to comment on a motion filed by former Cebu vice governor John Gregory ?John-John? Osmeña, who challenged the filing of an illegal drugs case against him.
The case stemmed from Osmeña?s alleged involved in a pseudoephedrine shipment that was intercepted by government anti-narcotics agents on March 5, 2004.
RTC Judge Meinrado Paredes of Branch 13 issued the order on Tuesday. The case ended up in his court following a raffle last Monday to determine which court should handle the case.
Edgar Gica, Osmeña?s lawyer, filed the motion for judicial determination of probable cause on May 9. The motion asked the court to review the resolution of a special panel of prosecutors in filing the case against Osmeña and to withhold the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the former vice governor.
In the motion for judicial determination of probable cause, Gica said that the sworn affidavits of the 13 Philippine Drug Enforcers Agency (PDEA) agents who intercepted the pseudoephedrine had not even cited any violations of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act that Osmeña may have committed.
Also, Gica said that the affidavit issued by Senior Superintendent Primo Golingay, director of compliance service of PDEA, did not establish Osmeña as the alleged protector of the consignees of the pseudoephedrine shipment, Mike Cummings and Dirk Hultz.
?There is absolute absence of a fact or circumstance which the prosecutors can cite as constituting John-John?s act of consenting to such unlawful act,? Gica said.
Regional State Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane said prosecutors had not received a copy of the court's order as of Tuesday.
The case against Cummings and Hultz for alleged drug trafficking also ended up in Paredes? court. The judge said the case against the two would be treated separate from Osmeña's case.
Osmeña has been accused of trying to protect Cummings and Hultz in importing the pseudoephedrine shipment.
Members of Osmeña's staff during his term as vice governor were also listed as incorporators of the company that served as the consignee of the pseudoephedrine shipment.
Pseudoephedrine is a controlled substance due to its use as an ingredient in the manufacture of the highly addictive illegal drug shabu.
