Mandaue shabu lab trial: Court denies bail for Tan

Regional Trial Court judge Marilyn Yap yesterday denied the petition for bail filed by suspected shabu laboratory financier Calvin de Jesus Tan.

Yap, in her 23-page order, stated that the court finds that the evidence of guilt of the accused is strong, thus denying the bail petition.

"It is very disappointing. There was no evidence at all against Mr. Calvin Tan," said Tan's Manila-based lawyer William delos Santos in a phone interview.

De los Santos said that he will file a motion for reconsideration next week.

Yap said that there is an evidence of conspiracy between Simon Lao and Tan. Lao allegedly got around using three aliases - Anthony, Andy Ang and Hung Chin Chang. These were based on the testimony of Morteza Tamadoni.

Tamadoni is an Iranian national, who testified that he met Lao during the last week of November 2003 through his friend named Benjie at Glorietta in Makati City.

Lao was allegedly looking for a business partner for his plastic factory. He was particularly eyeing someone who was familiar with Manila and outside Manila particularly Cebu.

Tamadoni said that agreed to be the business partner of Lao right away. He also said that among the materials needed for the business includes acetone and hydrogen tanks as well as to find a warehouse as a start.

Sensing that there was something illegal about this transaction, Tamadoni called his Muslim friend Police Chief Insp. Madzgani Mukaram, who told him that acetone was not a raw material for the manufacture of plastic and believed that it was to be used for an illegal purpose.

Mukaram instructed Tamadoni to go on with the planned business and supply acetone and gave further instructions to report to him, document everything, and to closely watch the flow of the business.

Mukaram is also one of the prosecution witnesses as the head of the surveillance team, whose findings led to the raid of the shabu laboratory in barangay Umapad in September 24, 2004.

From then on, Lao allegedly gave Tamadoni money for plane tickets to Cebu, warehouse rental payments, and cash with an instruction for him to buy as much as P300,000 worth of acetone including 16 hydrogen tanks.

The Court further believes that Lao was not operating alone when he gave the money to Morteza to spend for the materials and the rental of the warehouse.

"If that were so, it was unnecessary for him to ask Tamadoni to fly to Hong Kong on April 15, 2005, accompany the latter to Macau the next day and introduced Tamadoni to Boss Joey and if Tamadoni has to travel all the way to Macau to meet Boss Joey in person, then, he was someone higher in rank or stature than Lao," Yap's order stated.

Boss Joey was later identified by the witness to be Tan.

The court considered the statements of Tamadoni on this matter very relevant because these prove the active interest of Tan in allegedly making shabu on a large scale, with profit being his prime motive and the nature of his participation as the financier of the operation of a shabu laboratory.

The order added that although it was Lao, who gave the money to Tamadoni to pay for the ingredients and materials in producing shabu, Tamadoni's consequent meeting with Tan,m as arranged by Lao, clarifies the role of Tan as the financier of the illegal business venture of manufacturing shabu.

"These circumstances testified by Tamadoni show evidence of conspiracy between Lao and Tan. Tamadoni's trip to Hong Kong, his conversation with Tan in Macau when added to the transactions that evolved between Tamadoni and Lao regarding the chemicals provide in certain terms a reasonable conclusion that both had unity of purpose and unity in the execution in the manufacture of shabu."

Tan is among the 14 accused for allegedly manufacturing shabu. Charged for the case are 11 people, mostly foreigners as well as warehouse owners Richard Ong and Andy Ng, who are both out on bail.

Tan was brought to Cebu from Manila last July 20. He had been extradited from Hong Kong where he was detained for a separate drugs case.

The said shabu laboratory was said to be the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Seized in the raid were 675 kilos of shabu worth P1.5 billion and enough chemicals to produce 15 tons more of the banned substance.