Tuesday, July 01, 2008 Ombud dismisses police official
THE anti-graft office has ordered the dismissal of a police official and a subordinate for allegedly asking money from a drug suspect arrested for drug peddling.
“By reason of their vicious and illegal act, respondents deserve the corresponding penalty for grave misconduct, which is dismissal from the service,” said Graft Investigator Mary Antonette Yalao of Senior Insp. Claro Benatiro and PO2 Antonio Aguisanda.
At the time the complaint was filed, Benatiro, brother of retired Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) chief Hiram Benatiro, was the head of the Consolacion PNP Station.
“Far from being an exemplar to his subordinates being the Chief of Police of Consolacion Police Office, by his corrupt act, P/Sr. Insp. Claro Benatiro undermined the dignity of his position and the government entity he represents,” read the resolution approved by Deputy Ombudsman for the Military Emilio Gonzalez III.
“The same can be said of PO2 Antonio Aguisanda who acted together with him,” the ruling, which also bares the approval of Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro, added.
Benatiro denied the charge during the ombudsman’s investigation against him and Aguisanda.
He said the arrest of the complainants was in line with a lawfully conducted buy-bust operation and that the allegations the complainants raised against him and his subordinates were fabrications.
He admitted to having been present when the complainants said a payoff was to be made but stressed that this was part of a legitimate follow-up operation to identify the “big-fish.”
To show the legitimacy of the buy-bust operation, he said he even reported the accomplishment to Consolacion Mayor Avelino Gungob.
Operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 filed the complaint against Benatiro and his co-accused after an entrapment operation that resulted in the arrest of Jerry Perez, the janitor and cook of the Consolacion PNP Station.
Perez, who was separately charged, was acquitted after agreeing to testify in favor of the prosecution.
The NBI’s involvement, on the other hand, came as the result of a complaint filed by Mary Ann Deniega who, together with her boyfriend, Hiram Malinao Godinez, was arrested last Oct. 7, 2005.
Deniega said the policemen, which included Aguisanda, PO2 Rodelo Pilapil, PO1 Julius Patac and SPO1 Ricardo Ermac, demanded P100,000 from them immediately after their arrest.
She said the amount was lowered to P70,000. They agreed and had somebody hand over the payment, which was supposedly collected by PO3 Ernesto Pepito in the presence of PO1 Dennis Pepito, PO1 Junjun Cometa and Benatiro.
Deniega was released after the payment of the sum but Hiram was still charged. He was released last Oct, 10, 2005 after posting bail.
She said Hiram gave P120,000 to PO1 Dennis Malinao for his cash bond and didn’t get change. The receipt the court
issued, on the other hand, reflected P50,000.
The policemen, she said, kept on demanding money from her and Hiram. She added that they asked P10,000 for the release of the motorcycle that they were riding on at the time of their arrest.
It was at this point that they went to the NBI for assistance.
Deniega, in an affidavit issued after the entrapment, said the NBI planned the entrapment operation on the pretext of her agreeing to make the payoff in front of the ASPAC Bank in Consolacion town.
There, she said she was instructed by Aguisanda to wait for him in front of the bank.
Benatiro and Aguisanda arrived, she said, but did not get off the car Aguisanda was driving. Instead, she was asked to get on board, an invitation she refused.
Aguisanda, she said, later sent a message to her mobile phone, telling her to wait for somebody to make the pickup.
Two men later arrived on board a motorcycle – Jerry Perez and the motorcycle-for-hire driver.
Graft Investigator Yalao noted that other than Deniega’s testimony, there were transcripts of the mobile phone messages the respondents allegedly sent the complainants.
“All the circumstances, taken together, lead to the inevitable conclusion that respondents Benatiro and Aguisanda and civilian Perez, acted together in exacting money from the complainants,” the ruling read.
“The act committed by respondents Benatiro and Aguisanda is reprehensible. It constitutes graft misconduct for which they should be sanctioned under existing law,” Graft Investigator Yalao said.
She, however, said the evidence on record is only sufficient to indict Benatiro and Aguisanda and not the other co-accused – Ermac, Malinao, Pepito, Pilapil, Patac and Cometa. (KNR)
