Ozone disco owners seek acquittal in graft case

Owners of the Ozone disco in Quezon City have asked the Sandiganbayan to acquit them in the graft case filed before the anti-graft court in relation to a fire that killed 162 people and injured 93 others in 1996.

Lawyers of Westwood Entertainment Company Inc. stockholders Ramon Ng, Rosita Ku and Sunny Ku said the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that their clients had violated the anti-graft law by conspiring with then engineering and building officials of Quezon City to conceal the establishment’s “structural deficiencies” and “electrical and fire safety insufficiencies” that “directly” caused the fire on March 19, 1996.

The lawyers also argued that accused should not be held criminally liable for corporate obligations, citing a key principle in corporate law that states that a corporation has a separate personality distinct from its stockholders and from other corporations to which it may be connected.

Apart from Ng and the Kus, other stockholders and directors of Westwood accused of the same crime were Hermilo Ocampo, Racquel Ocampo and Alfredo Chua.

The officials of Quezon City engineer and building offices also indicted in the case were Alfredo Macapugay, Oligario Tabernilla, Benjamin Malinao, Donato Rivera Jr., Edgardo Reyes, Francisco Itlion, Godofredo Angara Jr., Retronilo Dellamas, Jose Enriquez, Renato Diaz, Rogelio Cantos and Alfredo Zamora Jr.

The graft case is already set for submission for decision of the fifth division, according to court officials.   – Edu Punay