Saturday, December 22, 2007 ‘I was mauled by NBI agents’
A CEBUANO businessman is accusing 15 persons who identified themselves as National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents of mauling him while trying to enter a compound in Sto. Niño Village, Barangay Banilad, Cebu City.
Businessman Benson Chua alleged that the 15 NBI agents, accompanied by 15 “cargadores,” forced open the main gate and tried to enter the compound of VTL Realty Inc. at 888 Kingfisher St. in Sto. Niño Village last Monday.
The agents, led by ex-officio sheriff Carol Bulacan of the National Capital Judicial Region in Quezon City, Metro Manila, served a writ of possession dated Dec. 10, 2007 from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 102.
They tried to serve the writ of possession on him despite Chua’s insistence that the injunction he secured from the Regional Trial Court Branch 10 has not yet lapsed.
Chua, in a press conference at Crowne Garden Hotel in Lahug, Cebu City yesterday, said he tried to ask for a court warrant and, after not getting any, asked the group, which arrived at 10 a.m., to leave.
Witnesses
At 4 p.m., the group allegedly mauled him at the gate of the compound.
They allegedly took turns punching and kicking him in the back and groin, twisted his arm, dragged him and handcuffed one of his hands to the gate.
If not for his daughter Mei Lyn, 23, who witnessed the attack and pleaded with the group to stop hurting her father, he would have been badly injured.
A driver of Peter Po, Chua’s landowner and one of the owners of VTL Realty Inc., was able to take a photo of the incident. Chua’s lawyer Efren Ramirez also witnessed the assault.
Chua said he is not filing charges against the persons behind the attack, but he wants the NBI to identify the people who served the writ.
He did not report the incident to the police and did not have any visible injuries.
But he was thankful for two policemen from the Mabolo Police Station who tried to stop the attack.
Grudge?
Chua said he was surprised by “such show of force” which he traced to his personal grudge with his former wife’s lawyer Leticia Ala.
Ala represented Chua’s former wife in their annulment case in 2000.
Chua said that Ala and his ex-wife have withdrawn their appearance in 2002, after reaching a settlement of P164,000 in favor of his ex-wife.
But two months later, Ala sent him a letter, collecting P4.5 million for attorney’s fees, 10 percent of his possessions and a land in Talisay put together.
Chua admitted he has filed several disbarment cases against Ala in the past.
Bulacan’s writ read that any sheriff is allowed to execute the final deed of sale that covers a parcel of land in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City as payment for Ala’s fees.
However, Chua also said the implementation of the order was premature because there are still pending issues and the writ was not yet final, since the 15-day period has not yet expired.
Not criminal
Sun.Star Cebu tried to contact lawyer Medardo de Lemos of NBI 7 to clarify if the NBI team could implement the order despite the injunction Chua secured from the Cebu City RTC last Nov. 16.
De Lemos could not be reached for comment.
Chua, however, said he wants the NBI to give him a list of people who served the writ of possession.
“I will give them a chance to speak up. I want to be friends with them. I want their proper IDs, including the sheriff. What I have is a civil case, not a criminal case, so why did Ala commission Bulacan to use the services of NBI instead of the police when I am not a criminal?” he told reporters yesterday.
He also admitted that he also became suspicious of the group after an unidentified person slipped him a piece of paper warning him that the group might “plant” shabu as evidence against him if they entered his property.
The group reportedly attempted to break into the compound from 10 a.m. up to 7:30 p.m.
He believes they left after he informed him that he would hold them liable if anything happens to his sick mother, who was inside their house in the compound. (NRC)
