Friday, March 16, 2007 Vice guv complains of shakedown by 2 lawyers working at Capitol By Jeanette P. Malinao Sun.Star Staff Reporter
TWO lawyers working with the Capitol’s legislative department are accused of extorting money from Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr.
Sanchez claimed he would have wanted an entrapment the first time the two did it in 2005, but eventually gave in “to buy peace” and to protect his family from controversies, especially his wife, who is sick.
But now that the two are allegedly at it again, Sanchez feels he has to do something. He is thinking of filing disbarment cases against the two, aside from criminal cases for extortion.
Sun.Star Cebu is withholding the names of the lawyers, who have been working with the Capitol for years now, until they can give their side. They could not be reached last night.
The vice governor narrated that the lawyers used a lady who used to be a staff member of the vice governor’s office.
The woman employee, who was absent without official leave (Awol) in September 2005, executed an affidavit dated Dec. 21, 2005 accusing Sanchez of raping and sexually harassing her in August 2004.
Go to war
The woman, through the lawyers and with the use of the affidavit, allegedly demanded an initial P5 million for her silence.
But Sanchez got angry with this and said he would rather “go to war” with her, saying he is innocent of the charge and can easily prove it.
The demand was reportedly reduced to P1 million, and then P800,000.
Sanchez admitted yesterday he decided to give P600,000 just so the matter would end.
He thought that was the last time he would hear of it until last month, when the woman contacted the vice governor’s office to say that last January, the two lawyers again called her up.
In an affidavit that she signed last Feb. 5, 2007, the woman claimed that the two lawyers called her up saying that they can again “easily extort” money from Sanchez and “blackmail” him because Sanchez is seeking reelection this May.
The woman said she could not do the same thing again because she was bothered by her conscience the first time that she did it, and so she warned Sanchez about what happened the previous time.
Dire need
In her Feb. 5 affidavit, she said she was in “dire need of money” in 2005, which is why she went on Awol and went to General Santos City.
She was “trying to evade monetary obligations” in Cebu and so one of the two lawyers reportedly told her in 2005 that “if I want my monetary problems solved, I can blackmail and extort from Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez because he is a millionaire and can easily give in to our demands.”
“But since then I was bothered by my conscience because it was not true,” she added.
She also issued an affidavit narrating what she said was the truth, and to withdraw the accusations she made in December 2005.
“I will never sanction, much less consent to any moves (of the two lawyers) to carry out their evil scheme and I will never appear in any proceedings conducted by any court or tribunal to testify against the vice governor for I can’t testify falsely before the court,” her affidavit read.
