A Hong Kong court yesterday granted bail to a Philippine legislator and son of a prominent politician after he spent more than a month in police custody on drug charges.
Hong Kong airport authorities arrested Ronald Singson, 41, on July 11 on suspicion of trafficking in cocaine after a flight from Manila.
Singson is the son of Luis “Chavit” Singson, a provincial governor whose testimony in the corruption trial of his one-time friend, former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, helped convict the ousted leader in 2007 and send him to prison. Estrada was later pardoned.
The drug case has generated publicity in the Philippines, where powerful lawmakers sometimes run afoul of the law. One legislator has been convicted of raping a minor and another is facing charges of killing his wife.
Singson’s father, who attended yesterday’s hearing, told ABS-CBN television in Manila that he suspected his son was set up because of “politics and business.” He did not elaborate and said the bail would be split by two Hong Kong “business friends” he did not identify.
Bail was set at HK$1 million (US$130,000) in cash, on condition that Singson report daily to a police station. His passport and other travel documents were to be surrendered.
The next hearing was set for Sept. 7 at a district court.
Singson’s father said his son was traveling with two companions who also were found carrying the drugs but were supposedly immediately released.
Singson was initially charged with trafficking 26.1g of cocaine, but the amount was reduced to 6.67g after a routine analysis by government chemists, the Tseun Wan Magistrates’ Court No. 1 heard. Two tablets of diazepam, the generic form of Valium, were also allegedly found on him.
In Hong Kong, trafficking in a dangerous drug carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of HK$5 million. It was unclear if the reduced amount of cocaine would result in a less severe charge. Singson’s lawyer, John Reading, declined to comment at the court house.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
RSS