[PHNO-sb] ACE VERGEL ACQUITTED IN SHABU-PUSHING CASE
Philippine Headline News Online
Quezon City, Jan. 26, 2000 A Quezon City Court yesterday cleared action
star Ace Vergel of drug charges filed against him five years ago.
Regional Trial Court Branch 96 Judge Lucas Bersamin absolved the action
star, Ace York Aguilar in real life, and his co-accused Tessie Nuguchi from
charges of selling five grams of shabu.
Bersamin found incredible that during the alleged buy-bust conducted on
Sept. 9, 1994 on Vergel at Nuguchi s home in Project 4, a poseur-buyer of
the Narcotics Command (Narcom) merely handed P7,600 of boodle money through
a 10-foot high gate and could not explain how they had prepared the
boodle .
Bersamin instead found credible the testimony of Vergel that he had shouted,
Mga kapitbahay, tulungan niyo kami! Magnanakaw! Magnanakaw! May mga baril
sila! when the Narcom agents barged into Nuguchi s house unannounced and
made the judge doubtful over the legitimacy of the buy-bust.
During the trial, Vergel told the court that instead of taking him and
Nuguchi to the Narcom headquarters in Camp Crame, they were first brought to
a lodge in Pasig City where the agents reportedly sought to get P1 million
from him.
The actor claimed he was later presented to the media at Camp Crame only
after he told them he could not possibly come up with the amount.
The judge also deemed it possible that the Narcom had an ax to grind due to
several cases the actor had lodged against them for alleged unlawful
arrests.
Judge Tirso Velasco of the Regional Trial Court acquitted Vergel after
finding insufficient evidence to convict the actor.
The alleged confiscation of a brick of marijuana, a number of dormicon
tablets, several grams of shabu, and suspected cocaine as evidence were
likewise junked by the judge for the Narcom agents failure to secure a
search warrant. This, the judge said, proved that the agents had, in fact,
trespassed into Nuguchi s home.
The judge also pointed out the failure of the prosecution to prove the guilt
of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE Mailing List. To unsubscribe,
e-mail can...@newsflash.org. Please visit our homepage at:
http://www.newsflash.org/ for more news item
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the fastest and easiest way to backup your files and, access them from
anywhere. Try @backup Free for 30 days. Click here for a chance to win a
digital camera.
http://click.egroups.com/1/337/4/_/59947/_/948884895/
eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/phno
http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
==========================================================
This is the PHNO Mailing List. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to: "majo...@newsflash.org" and in the message body, type: "unsubscribe phno" if you are a subscriber to our detailed mailing list or "unsubscribe phno-digest" if you are a subscriber to the digest version.
To subscribe to the list, type "subscribe phno" for the detailed version and "subscribe phno-digest" for the digest version.
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2000. All rights reserved.