The Court of Appeals yesterday reset next week proceedings on the habeas corpus petition filed by relatives of suspected drug violaters but only after upbraiding a defense lawyer over the late filing of a motion to intervene.

The CA?s 13th Division headed by Associate Justice Mario Guari?a III granted the intervenor?s pleading filed by lawyer Andresito Fornier, for Jorge Joseph, and rescheduled the hearing to Jan. 27 and 30.

In open court, Guari?a scolded Fornier for causing the delay in the hearing of the habeas corpus petition filed by his co-accused, Richard Brodett and Joseph Tecson.

The Brodett and Tecson kin sought earlier the release of the suspects detained by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency based on a Dec. 2, 2008 resolution issued by the state prosecutors, dismissing the complaint for illegal possession of prohibited drugs against them.

?You are delaying the proceedings. We can?t hear the case now if we allow the intervention... You are wasting the time of the Court and other parties,? Guari?a said, noting that the petition for the habeas writ has been filed last Jan. 6.

While Fornier said sorry, he argued that his client hoped that PDEA would reconsider its position, dishonoring the Dec. 2 issuance, hence obviating the need for a habeas petition.

?We are hoping that PDEA would probably see the light that what they were doing is wrong and illegal,? he said, in an interview.

Guari?a after conferring with Associate Justices Arturo Tayag and Monina Ze?arosa consolidated Fornier?s motion for intervention and the habeas petition.

Obeying the CA order, Pdea presented Brodett and Tecson, and submitted their return of the writ.

Respondents Pdea Director Dionisio Santiago, Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino and chief legal officer Alvaro Lazaro showed up during the hearing.

They insisted that the two were held for cause by the agency after having been lawfully arrested along with Jorge Joseph in a sting operation on Sept. 20 last year. Rey E. Requejo