Sunday, December 16, 2007 Boss stands by officer, finds charge 'illogical'
LAWYER Gines Abellana will face the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) if the group will invite him to a meeting over his alleged involvement in a bribery attempt.
“Ako silang atubangon, nganong mahadlok man ta (I’ll face them. Why should I be afraid)?” Abellana told Sun.Star Cebu, upon learning that the IBP might invite him to explain his side on the issue.
IBP Cebu City chapter president Briccio Boholst said they might decide to invite Abellana. The IBP board is set to meet next week.
Boholst, however, clarified that calling Abellana to a meeting does not necessarily mean that he is under investigation. There is no formal complaint against their fellow lawyer.
The lawyer made headlines when a policewoman arrested in an entrapment last Dec. 10 disclosed that Abellana instructed her to offer cash in exchange for lowering the drug crime to be filed against a client.
But Abellana said the bribe was instigated.
He said that the operatives who arrested his client Cleofe Racaza demanded money from the suspect so that she will not be charged in court.
This prompted him (Abellana) to call PO1 Blaire Quezon, also a client, to check what the settlement was all about.
But after Quezon handed over P50,000 to PO2 Roehl Patalinhug, she was arrested.
Abellana said that the entrapment against Quezon was done because the police officers thought they were also the subjects of an entrapment.
But Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ronald Roderos wondered why it took the lawyer days after the arrest to answer the allegations.
Roderos pointed out that he found it questionable that Abellana took so long to say that it was the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group that initially demanded money.
He also found it “illogical” that Supt. Marvin Sanchez would try to get back at Abellana for a case in 2000, because the man Abellana was representing was convicted.
Abellana had accused Sanchez of harboring a grudge against him regarding the missing dollars of his Japanese client.
“There is no logic there. If he (Sanchez) had an axe to grind, there is no motive there because he (the Japanese) was convicted,” Roderos told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Sanchez’s team arrested PO1 Quezon last Monday for offering P50,000 to them to reduce the case against Racaza, who was arrested in a buy-bust in Tanke, Talisay City last Dec. 7.
Abellana had claimed that someone demanded P100,000 from Racaza if she did not want to be charged in court or P50,000 if she wanted the case downgraded to a bailable offense.
Abellana said he asked Quezon to look into the offer of the settlement.
Roderos, though, said Abellana has the right to lodge a complaint against the members of the task group.
If this happens, Roderos said the Regional Legal Service will take care of the operatives.
“We will assume that there is regularity in the performance of duty unless proven otherwise,” Roderos said, adding that the arrest was immediately reported to higher headquarters and to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Sanchez has also denied Abellana’s claims. (KNT/MEA)
