High Court reverses decision in big shabu case, rebukes cops, judges

By Rey E. Requejo

THE Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of two men who were convicted in 2014 for possession of over 119 kilos of shabu in 2003 and rebuked the police, prosecutors, and lower court judges for bungling a multi-billion-peso drug case. In an en banc decision rendered on Feb. 21 but uploaded on the Court’s website on June 30, the justices reversed the decision of the Court of Appeals and acquitted Robert Uy, and James Go Ong alias Willie Gan. The decision and the Court’s scath- ing assessment of the officials involved triggered a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the possible culpabilities of prosecutors in the case.