It's no go for Atong Ang to Cambodia – Sandigan

There won’t be any week-long travel to Cambodia for controversial businessman Charlie "Atong" Ang. This, after the Sandiganbayan Special Division denied with finality the Ang’s request for him to go to Phnom Penh purportedly due to a job offer from a gaming firm there. In a three-page resolution issued late Thursday, the antigraft court ruled that Ang is a "flight risk" once outside the court’s jurisdiction. "The Court is of the opinion that, considering the history of probationer Ang, the risk of flight is high and the risk to (his) life may be heightened in the event that he should be allowed to travel abroad," the Sandiganbayan said. A co-accused of pardoned former President Joseph Estrada in the Philippine opposition leader’s plunder case, Ang is under a two-year probation after pleading guilty to a lesser offense of bribery of public officials. Ang had earlier admitted to getting P25 million from the P130-million tobacco excise tax which he claimed to have personally delivered to Estrada. In junking Ang’s request, the antigraft court noted that Ang had resisted efforts then by the Philippine government to have him extradited from the United States to face trial for plunder here. Further, the special division scored his transfer by Quezon City Jail officials to Bicutan even without securing prior clearance from the court owing to supposed threats to his life. These facts, the court said, raised the chances that he might abscond. The court, however, made no adverse pronouncements regarding Ang's plan to consider a job as a consultant for 888 Company, a Cambodian gaming firm. This, despite earlier imposing conditions that Ang shall not involve himself in gambling or be associated with similar activities during his probation period. - GMANews.TV