Thursday, December 21, 2006 Province fiscal’s office secure, says prosecutor
THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 yesterday filed a complaint for robbery against the janitor who broke into the evidence room at the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor last Friday dawn.
Provincial Prosecutor Jane Petralba accompanied the agents as the representative of the offended party.
Interviewed during the preliminary investigation, Petralba took offense at a statement attributed to lawyer Alex Tolentino, Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City chapter president, on how evidence stored at the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor isn’t secure.
“He hasn’t even seen our evidence room. He is simply riding on the issue. He should come and inspect the place,” Petralba said.
She admitted, though, that it isn’t the most secure setup because they don’t have a vault.
“But as far as the people-component, we make do,” she said.
Assistant Cebu City Prosecutor Simaco Labata recommended Bryant Baguio’s indictment for the break-in and set bail at P40,000, but was unable to transmit the records of the case to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Criminal Division on time.
While the robbery was at the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor, it is the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor that has jurisdiction.
There was a lull during the preliminary investigation because lawyers from the Office of the Public Attorney refused to sign Baguio’s waiver of detention and questioned the validity of Baguio’s arrest.
They said the time that elapsed between the actual commission of the crime, which was early Friday dawn, and the time of the arrest, which mid-morning of Tuesday, was beyond the allowable period of 36 hours at most.
Thus, they argued, Baguio shouldn’t have been arrested. Instead, he should be set free. And though he still had to face charges, he should be processed under regular preliminary investigation.
But City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon disagreed, saying he was caught with the evidence – six firearms and three hand grenades.
NBI Supervising Agent Renan Oliva, a lawyer, also argued that the arrest was valid, being a result of a legitimate follow-up operation.
Baguio, interviewed at Prosecutor Labata’s office, admitted to the break-in. He said he needed the money because his father had a second stroke.
He said he went into the administrative section and locked himself inside the comfort room.
Then, when he the appropriate time came, he climbed up the wall, broke through the ceiling, crawled over into the other side – an abandoned comfort room whose doorway led to the evidence lockup – and made his way down.
He said he then pried open the metal doors of the steel cabinet that served as the evidence locker and groped for the guns and the grenades.
Attached to the complaint was the affidavit of Ronald Jaime, a security guard at the Palace of Justice who said he saw Baguio at the palace grounds at around 3 a.m. last Friday.
Likewise attached was the statement of Lyndon Lazarte, evidence custodian at the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor who discovered the crime.
He said he arrived at the office at around 8:12 in the morning last Friday and proceeded directly to his post at the evidence room.
He said the first thing he noticed was that one of the two padlocks securing the metal cabinet had already been pried open.
He narrated that he detached the second lock and opened the cabinet only to discover that somebody had indeed broken in. (KNR)
