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| District Court in Wanchai |
By
Vir B. Lumicao
A three-day trial in District Court of a Filipino tourist
accused of using a false instrument was reset on Jan 16 when the defendant
could not attend because he was sick.
The elderly defendant, Celerino L. Tinana, was in a hospital
with doctors monitoring his heartbeat, his Legal Aid-assigned counsel told
Judge David Dufton.
The prosecution had asked for a two-week adjournment but the
judge, visibly irritated, said the case was already adjourned during the last
hearing on Nov 14, 2018, supposed to be the start of a three-day trial.
Dufton adjourned the hearing and ordered the prosecution to
call the hospital and ascertain if the defendant would be available for trial
in three days.
Tinana, an Ilocano, was arrested in November 2017 while
allegedly presenting a fake check for US$100 billion in a Kowloon
He was granted bail in the previous hearing by District
Court Judge Eddie Yip, who also agreed to adjourn the case until Jan 16 despite
objections from the defense.
Tinana is one of a growing number of Filipino tourists, many
of them elderly, who have been arrested over the past two years on similar
charges. Several have been convicted, three acquitted, and the rest are still
awaiting trial in District Court.
It is not clear why they had agreed to present to banks what
to many appear to be patently spurious documents.
The latest Filipino tourist arrested for allegedly trying to
pass off false instruments as genuine was David Morano Jr. He was nabbed in
July last year while allegedly trying to transact business in a local bank
using fake gold certificates worth US$500 billion.
The trial of the longest-held defendant, 76-year-old Maria
Ilao Gosilatar, on a charge of “using a false instrument,” will start on Jan 30
in District Court,
Gosilatar was arrested on Dec 9, 2016, for allegedly trying
to cash a US$50 million fake check at the Hang Seng Bank headquarters in
Central. She had been in custody since then.
The biggest of these false instrument cases involves
Brudencio J. Bolaños, another elderly Filipino who allegedly tried to update
his account at HSBC on Apr 9 using a US$943 billion deposit slip ostensibly
issued by the bank on Jul 25, 1983.
He was arrested after he allegedly tried to convince bank staff the document was genuine. On Sept 4 last year, his trial was set for Jan 29 this year after his Legal Aid lawyer said Bolaños was going to plead not guilty.
He was arrested after he allegedly tried to convince bank staff the document was genuine. On Sept 4 last year, his trial was set for Jan 29 this year after his Legal Aid lawyer said Bolaños was going to plead not guilty.
At least three others charged with the same offense were,
however, acquitted in September last year, after the prosecution decided to
drop the charges against them for insufficient evidence.
Elmer Soliman, 57, his son Eric Jude Soliman, 31, and government
lawyer Eliseo Martinez, 43, were acquitted of a charge of trying to pass off a fake US$5billion bank draft as
genuine.
However, Magistrate Peter Law
denied their application for costs, saying he suspected a money laundering
attempt in the case.
The three had been in custody
for nearly three months before their acquittal and release.
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