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Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Internal Affairs to probe bribery
By Minerva B. Gerodias
DISARMED and restricted to camp, Insp. Benjamin Pepino will face an investigation by the Regional Internal Affairs Services (RIAS) 7 for allegedly offering money to the parents of complainants in a child abuse case.
Pepino’s mother unit, the Criminal Investigationand Detection Group (CIDG) 7, turned the case over to RIAS last Monday afternoon to avoid accusations of a cover-up or whitewash, said CIDG 7 Chief Edwin Diocos.
But CIDG 7 assured they will make Pepino available anytime RIAS 7 needs him.
Also, CIDG 7 has coordinated with the Korean Embassy to establish the correct name of Jong Keon Lee, the Korean accused of making several young Cebuanas as his sex slaves.
Unsure which Korean the CIDG was referring to, the local office of the Bureau of Immigration has placed in its hold-departure list nine Koreans bearing the same names as the child abuse suspect.
CIDG 7 legal officer Enrique Lacerna, who is now the case investigator, said he will send Lee’s picture to the Korean Embassy in Manila so it could countercheck Lee’s records.
Pepino, a veteran police investigator, played a major role in the filing of the criminal case against Lee and his secretary Alona Sala.
However, he was placed under camp restriction after he was accused of trying to settle the case for the Korean.
Pepino allegedly gathered the girls’ parents last Sunday in the house of one of the parents on Sikatuna St., Cebu City and asked them if P20,000 was enough for them to withdraw the case.
He later allegedly raised the amount to P25,000 and told the parents they would just continue discussing the matter in a restaurant.
But the parents who went to the CIDG 7 last Monday clarified that Pepino did not say what the offer was for.
Pepino strongly denied this, saying he was only there to remind the parents that they should go to the CIDG 7 office for the medical test of the other victims.
Meanwhile, the CIDG 7’s Women and Children’s Care Office revealed that one of the nine girls is believed to have contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
The girl underwent a medical exam and the doctor reportedly found abnormal discharges from her genitals.
The girl, however, could not tell where she got the alleged disease.
She said that before the Korean, she had sexual intercourse with her boyfriend, but the last person she had sex with was Lee.
(June 25, 2003 issue)
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