The Ouano family of Mandaue yesterday expressed relief over the verdict in the 2004 mega shabu lab case, saying it finally cleared their name.
“After eight years of humiliation and demonization, justice has been served. Not a single case was filed nor was there any mention by the state witness of my father’s involvement,” said Mandaue City Councilor Lollipop Ouano-Dizon.
“We have forgiven those people who are so quick to judge, but don’t bother to find out the truth. May God bless them all,” Dizon said in a text message.
Her father Thadeo Ouano was mayor of Mandaue in 2004 when the warehouse that concealed a shabu laboratory was discovered.
Thadeo is now a member of the Provincial Board.
A state witness, Hung Chin Chang, a.k.a. Simon Lao, gave key testimony that led to the conviction of eleven cohorts, including the financier of the drug laboratory.
The former Mandaue mayor was never charged, but Ouano was the focus of wide speculation that he had knowledge of the shabu operation given his tight hold on business enterprises in the city.
The clandestine shabu laboratoy was located along a national highway a few blocks from City Hall.
Andy Ng, owner of the warehouse in barangay Umapad, was the son of the late Councilor Martin Ng, Ouano’s political ally. Andy Ng was acquitted in a related case involving another warehouse in Mandaue City used by the drug ring.
Medellin town Mayor Ricardo Ramirez, who was then Mandaue City vice mayor in 2004, said the drug controversy cast suspicion over Ouano’s involvement.
Ramirez said this was the reason they didn’t stand a chance during the councilors’ league elections.
Lao’s lawyer Alex Tolentino said his client will remain at the Cebu provincial jail while they prepare his travel documents and have his name removed from the Bureau of Immigration watch list.
Chinese national Calvin de Jesus Tan, the alleged financier of the shabu laboratory, said he would contest the court decision.
Tan’s lawyer Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu said she will file a motion for reconsideration.
She said documents and Tan’s cell phone were never presented by the prosecution.
“The court relied almost 100 percent on the testimonies of Lao and Morteza Tomaddoni (the informant of the operation),” she said.
The defense lawyer Lao just wanted to be acquitted while Tamaddoni was after the reward money, which is 10 percent of the street value of the confiscated drugs of P1.3 billion.
The lawyer said Lao should not have been used as a state witness because he “is the most guilty.” “There are those who pointed him as the person who hired all the people working in the laboratory,” she said.
Newly appointed Court of Appeals Associate Justice Marilyn Lagura-Yap, the judge who sentenced the nine foreigners and two Filipinos in the drug case, lamented that the drug menace remains a major threat to society.
“It makes me feel sad. You realize how big is the problem. Drugs are just around the corner. It’s overwhelming,” Yap said.
The confiscated shabu was loaded in a truck and taken to Naga City where it was destroyed, she said.
Eleven of the 12 accused in the case were sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of P10 million each.