The Court of Appeals has sustained its decision ordering the Pasig City Regional Trial Court and the Malolos City RTC to hear and resolve the money laundering cases against shabu tiangge operator Amin Imam Boratong, his wife Memie and several others.
In a resolution, the CA’s Former Special Second Division, through Associate Justice Carmelita Salandanan Manahan denied the motions for reconsideration filed by the Boratongs of its Jan. 29, 2018 decision that reversed the rulings issued by the Pasig RTC on May 28, 2013 and by the Malolos RTC on Dec. 3, 2013 dismissing the money laundering cases.
The appellate court held that the respondents failed to raise new arguments that would warrant the reversal of its decision.
“Substantially, the issues proffered by the private respondents were already addressed, sufficiently passed upon and resolved in the assailed decision. Hence, we find no cogent reason to warrant reconsideration or modification of our decision,” the CA declared.
In its Jan. 29 decision, the appellate court ruled that the Pasig City and Malolos City RTCs violated the right of the prosecutors to due process whey they prematurely dismissed the cases.
The CA pointed out that in the conduct of the criminal proceedings, “the prosecutor has discretionary power to control the conduct of the presentation of the prosecution evidence, part of which is the option to choose what evidence to present or who to call as witness.”
With this ruling, the appellate court said that by not giving the State the opportunity to present its evidence in court or to amend the information, the said trial courts had effectively curtailed the State’s right to due process.
On February 10, 2006, agents of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force swooped down on the shabu market allegedly owned by Boratong couple in Pasig.
The shabu ‘tiangge’ was found on Boratong’s 2,000-square meter compound along F. Soriano street in Barangay Santo Tomas in Pasig.
During the raid, anti-illegal drugs operatives arrested hundreds of drug users and seized a large amount of shabu and numerous shabu paraphernalia.