Court favors ex-mayor’s plea in pyramid scam case

A Manila court on Thursday favored former Pagadian mayor Samuel Co's plea, saying the evidence against him in the supposed large-scale investment scam in Iligan City "was weak."

GMA News' Mark Salazar reported Thursday on "Balitanghali" that the Manila Regional Trial Court-Branch 7 granted Co's motion of demurrer to evidence, meaning it agreed that evidence of the case filed by alleged victims was weak.

But Co is still detained in a facility at the National Bureau of Investigation main office in Manila due to other syndicated estafa cases, for which he was not allowed to post bail.

With the granting of his demurrer to evidence plea, Co can get back his bail bond.

Manila RTC-Branch 7 Judge Acerey Pacheco will decide when to release Co's P1 million bail money, the report said.

Co is one of the principal suspects in the Aman Future Group Philippines Inc. investment scam, which allegedly duped some 15,000 victims in Visayas and Mindanao.

In the case filed in Pagadian, Co was also not allowed to post bail.

On the other hand, complainants slammed what they claimed as the "low pacing" of the trial process and the transfer of the proceedings from one court to another.

According to the report, the complainants are running out of resources and witnesses are losing their interest in the case due to the slow pace of the legal proceedings.

Meanwhile, Manuel Amalilio, the alleged mastermind of the Aman Futures scam is being held in Malaysia for pending complaints there.

In 2013, then Justice Secretary (now senator-elect) Leila de Lima said that pending complaints in Malaysia are preventing Amalilio's return to the Philippines. —John Ted Cordero/LBG, GMA News