SC orders transfer of Catanduanes shabu lab cases venue

The Supreme Court (SC) has granted the request of former Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to move the criminal cases involving the shabu laboratory discovered in Catanduanes in 2016 out of the sala of an allegedly partial Virac judge.

A June 19 notice obtained by reporters on Monday shows that the SC has directed the clerk of court of Virac, Catanduanes regional trial court (RTC) to forward the records of the three cases to the Makati City RTC.

The SC also ordered the cases be raffled to Makati judges within three days upon the receipt of the records and likewise directed the magistrates to be assigned to hear and decide them quickly and effectively.

When he was still Justice chief, Aguirre in March asked Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio to order the transfer of the Catanduanes shabu laboratory cases to either a Quezon City or a Makati court to eliminate the need for "elaborate security arrangements" for state prosecutors and witnesses, and insulate the proceedings from "threats" from groups affiliated with the accused.

Aguirre also claimed the accused in the cases are "politically connected and likewise yield an influence in the community."

"Thus, there is an imperious necessity to change the venue of trial of these cases," he said in his letter to Carpio earlier in the year.

The resigned Justice chief requested the venue transfer after government prosecutors asked the original handling magistrate, Judge Lelu Contreras of the Virac RTC Branch 43, to inhibit herself from the cases for a lack of the neutrality required to decide the criminal suits.

The prosecution had taken issue with Contreras' alleged actions that they said delayed the release of a search warrant for the then-suspected drug laboratory.

Contreras denied the prosecution's inhibition bid given a police officer's supposed recantation of a statement that favored the prosecution's accusations against her,  but said she will recuse herself from the cases "after the termination of the preliminary stages of the proceedings."

Tagged in the cases are lawyer Augusto Eric Isidoro, former acting regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation's Central Mindanao Office; his wife, Angelica; and sons of a former Catanduanes governor, among several other personalities.

Isidoro is allegedly the owner of the lot where the shabu laboratory in Barangay Palta Small, Virac, Catanduanes was built. He surrendered to authorities on March 20. —KBK/RSJ, GMA News