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DOJ files urgent motion seeking HDO vs Marcelino, Chinese companion

MANILA, Jan. 3 (PNA) -- The Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday filed an urgent motion before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) which seeks the issuance of a hold departure order against of Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino and his Chinese cohort Yan Yi Shou over the drug case filed by the DOJ against them last September.

“It is most respectfully prayed of his Honorable Court that the urgent motion for the issuance of hold departure order be granted and a HDO be issued against accused Lt. Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino and Yan Yi Shou, directing the Bureau of Immigration to include them in its hold departure list to prevent any possibility of their flight to another country to avoid prosecution of the case against them,” Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon said in a three-page urgent motion filed before Manila RTC Branch 49 Judge Daniel Villanueva.

“The prosecution dreads and believes that both accused may leave the country to escape prosecution and avoid facing up their liability and thus frustrates the end of justice,” it added.

The DOJ stressed the need for the issuance of the HDO considering that both respondents Marcelino and Yan are yet to be arraigned by the court..

Last Dec. 22, the Manila RTC ordered the arrest of Marcelino and his co-accused, Chinese national Yan Yi Shou after dismissing his motion seeking dismissal of the charges of violation of Section 11 (possession of dangerous drugs) of Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) against them.

The court finding prima facie evidence of probable cause in the charges of violating Section 11 (possession of dangerous drugs), Article II of Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 in connection with their arrest and the recovery of P380 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” in an apartment in Sta. Cruz, Manila a year ago.

Marcelino and Yan were apprehended by a team from the Philippine National Police-Anti Illegal Drugs Group and the Philippine Drug Enforcement and were subsequently charged before the DOJ.

Marcelino and his co-accused questioned their arrest during a joint PDEA- Philippine National Police operation in Sta. Cruz, Manila last January and their indictment by the DOJ.

Through the Public Attorney's Office, they insisted that they were inside the seized shabu laboratory with nearly 77 kilograms of shabu only because they were conducting an intelligence operation at that time.

Marcelino was in the apartment for a covert surveillance operation as a member of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

He even submitted a certification from the Philippine Army Intelligence Group showing that he is sharing information on the alleged involvement of Army personnel in the illegal drugs trade from September to December last year.

Last June, the DOJ through Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva junked all the charges against Marcelino and Yan for insufficiency of evidence, prompting the PNP-AIDG and PDEA to file a motion for reconsideration.

Manila RTC Branch 17 Judge Felicitas Laron-Cacanindin earlier deferred the issuance of warrants and postponed the arraignment of Marcelino and Shou last September 26, citing the motion he filed that there was no probable cause to proceed with the trial of the case.

This came after the DOJ partially granted the motion for reconsideration filed by the PNP-AIDG and PDEA assailing its previous resolution that dropped the complaint against the two suspects. (PNA)

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