The Supreme Court (SC) has approved the dismissal of criminal cases against businessman Dante Tan, a supposed crony of former President Joseph Estrada, who figured in the insider trading and stock price manipulation case that hit Best World (BW) Resources Corp. in 1999.

The cases – two counts of violation of the Revised Securities Act – stemmed from Tan’s alleged failure to file a sworn statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) of the amount of all BW Resources shares within the required 10-day period.

Tan is the former president of BW Resources Corp. In 2001, the Department of Justice (DoJ) charged Tan before the Pasig City regional trial court after he failed to declare with SEC and PSE his 159.03- million shares in the company.

Tan pleaded not guilty to both charges during his arraignment and the trial commenced.

In March 2004, the Pasig court dismissed the case by granting the demurrer to evidence submitted by Tan.

Demurrer is a pleading filed by an accused, seeking the dismissal of the case against him on ground of insufficiency of evidence. In filing the same, the accused waives his right to present evidence and submits the case for judgment on the basis of the evidence for the prosecution.

The DoJ went to the Court of Appeals (CA), which in June, 2004, affirmed the lower court ruling. It then elevated the case to the SC.

In 14-page decision penned by Associate Justice Diosdado M. Peralta, the SC’s Second Division threw out the DoJ petition and ruled that the lower court did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it dismissed the case against Tan.

The Second Division held that a review of the records of the case revealed that the prosecution was given all the opportunity to prove Tan’s guilt; yet, it still failed to present enough evidence to secure his conviction.

“This Court finds that the (Pasig court) did not abuse its discretion in the manner it conducted the proceedings of the trial, as well as its grant of respondent’s (Tan) demurrer to evidence,” it pointed out.

“This Court rules that petitioner was given more than ample opportunity to present its case as gleaned from the factual antecedents, which led to the grant of respondent’s demurrer,” it added.
Concurring with Peralta’s decision were Associate Justices Antonio T. Carpio, Lucas P. Bersamin, and Roberto A. Abad.

The dismissed cases are different from that of the criminal case against Tan and seven others in connection with the manipulation of BW stocks.

The seven are Federico Galang, Eduardo Lim Jr., Hermogenes Laddaran, Raul de Castro, Emmanuel Edward Co, Mario Juan and Jimmy Juan.

Last year, the CA ordered the prosecution of Tan and company for manipulating the stocks of BW in 1999, which caused BW stock price to skyrocket from P2.04 in January 1999, to a record high of P107 on Oct. 11 when Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho accepted an offer to become its chair. But a day after, the stock plunged to P68, causing heavy losses to many investors.