Friday, August 10, 2007 Roperos: Plea for judicial help By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
WHEN I again dropped by the office of Canada’s honorary consul Robert Lee last week, he gave me a copy of a letter reacting to my column about the request for assistance from a Canadian national now living in Cebu who encountered a problem with our judicial system in Metro Manila.
Businessman Paul Dumont wrote anew to Consul Lee seeking help to clear himself from what he considers as a fake case filed against him.
Dumont, in his letter, said that having experienced the “humiliation” brought on his honor by local papers that reported accusations that he operated an illegal recruitment agency and abused Filipinos by “fraudulently and illegally taking their money for job placements that never existed,” showed how easily fake cases can be initiated.
Dumont, in his previous letter to Consul Lee, wrote about having been a victim of fake cases lodged against him in Metro Manila, the reason why he left that metropolis and went to Cebu. But it seems that his tormentor in Manila had traced his whereabouts.
“How easily these unscrupulous individuals can maneuver (and) use harassment and humiliation against businessmen and moneyed Filipino to gain money using the judicial system as their collection agency,” he said.
Dumont used the term “hulidap,” a combination of “huli,” meaning to catch, and “hold up.” He was not quite clear how to came upon the unscrupulous group that harassed people like him using the court as their tool.
The group, Dumont said, “perfects” a case against a targeted person then files it with the court. A warrant of arrest is then obtained and executed. The victim pays up to obtain his or her release.
“Victims of these schemes,” he added, “are numerous but no name a few, the Gotian brothers, both legitimate Filipino-Chinese businessmen in Quezon City, and even a judge who was doing a good job administering justice found himself with a warrant of arrest.”
The warrants were issued against a particular person but had Dumont and the Gotian brothers names as aliases.
In Dumont’s case, a Richard Briones was the original accused but a motion was filed in court seeking to substitute Paul Dumont for Briones, thus the warrant of arrest was issued against Dumont. The Gotians and Dumont cases “are both in Pasay City, in RTC branches 115 and 108 respectively.”
Clearly, there is need here for the judiciary’s help.
