Release of Chinese caught with arms cache defended

A Pasay prosecutor who took a lot of flak for ordering the release of a Chinese national caught with a cache of weapons has defended her decision, describing the suspect’s arrest as questionable.

In an interview with the Inquirer on Monday, Pasay Assistant Prosecutor Josefina Muego also clarified that contrary to reports, she did not dismiss the complaint for attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms and explosives against Jerry Sy.

Muego explained that in her Jan. 6 resolution, she ordered only the release from police custody of the Chinese national “subject to [the complaints] being raffled [off] for regular preliminary investigation.”

She maintained that Sy’s arrest was “questionable” and her order to release him was in keeping with inquest procedures “where arrest of the detained person was not properly effected” as stated in the Manual for Prosecutors.

According to the manual, detention officers are required to serve a subpoena or notice of preliminary investigation to respondents.

On Dec. 26, the 46-year-old Sy was nabbed in the VIP parking basement of Maxim Hotel at the Resorts World Manila casino complex in Pasay City.

Security guards had called the police after they saw the Chinese national in a scuffle with Ringsons International Office casino agent Joseph Ang, 58, and Ang’s bodyguard, ex-policeman Arturo Gatmaitan.

As Sy ran away from the police, he dropped two 9 mm magazines, authorities said in their complaint for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. They also found inside his car several weapons, including five pistols—two of them with silencers— various ammunition, hand grenades, a taser, a knife, an axe, a hammer, a stun gun, tire spikes, three cell phones, white gloves and a sachet containing 1.7 grams of “shabu.”

Pasay police investigation unit head Chief Insp. Joey Goforth told the Inquirer on Monday that the scuffle was caused by Sy’s debt of P2.1 million to the casino agent.

Ang and Gatmaitan later charged Sy with attempted murder although they told Muego afterward that they were no longer interested in pursuing the case against him.

In her resolution ordering Sy’s release, Muego noted that the complainants had said in their affidavits of desistance that the Dec. 26 incident was just “a misunderstanding.” Despite this, she said she referred the case for preliminary investigation.

“Neither was there a crime committed or just being committed when two magazine assemblies dropped from Jerry Sy,” she said.  “They [police] immediately arrested Jerry Sy without proper determination of respondent’s capacity to own or possess it. In fact, there is no certification from the proper government agency that Jerry Sy is not licensed to own or possess any firearms or ammunitions,” she added.

In an earlier interview, Pasay police chief Senior Supt. Florencia Ortilla pointed out that foreigners were not allowed to carry firearms. Southern Police District director Chief Supt. Jose Erwin Villacorte also said that silencers were illegal in the Philippines.

Muego countered on Monday that the police had provided no proof that Sy was a foreigner or that they knew he was an alien when they arrested him.

Ortilla, meanwhile, said that after Sy’s release, he was turned over to the Bureau of Immigration which sent him to the detention center for foreigners at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. Aside from the cases against him, Sy also faces another complaint for concealing his true name and identity since the address listed in his identification cards— 49 Fugoso St., Tondo, Manila—was nonexistent.