Thursday, September 04, 2008 Clearing of ex-policeman surprises arresting agency
THE dismissal of the criminal case against a policeman arrested inside his unit’s headquarters last year has surprised people of the office that carried out the arrest. They hint that somebody dropped the ball.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 Director Medardo de Lemos declined to comment on the ruling, penned by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr., saying his office has yet to be furnished a copy.
The Office of the Ombudsman conducted the inquest investigation over the incident, recommended what charge to file against whom in court and, subsequently, handled the prosecution.
The entrapment resulted in the disbandment of the Vice Control Section.
Dumdum, in dismissing the case against SPO1 Jaime Otadoy, who was later dismissed from service, pointed out that while he was charged with “conspiring and confederating with his men” in divesting a person they’d placed under custody of his valuables, the other men in question were never indicted.
No proof
The judge also noted that the prosecution failed to prove Otadoy’s participation in the robbery, just that he stood there and did not stop his men from taking the watch and the necklace.
But de Lemos, in a phone interview, said the two were named in the complaint.
He recalled that the Ombudsman charged Otadoy first because he was the only one arrested. He said the Ombudsman also resolved that the two others would later be subjected to preliminary investigation.
It was the anti-graft office that penned the information sheet used in the indictment, one NBI agent said. It was the anti-graft investigator who chose such terms as “conniving and confederating and mutually helping” despite charging only one person, the agent, a lawyer, added.
Charges
The NBI filed criminal and administrative charges of extortion, simple robbery, violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards against Public Officials against Otadoy last Aug. 23, 2007.
Similar criminal and administrative complaints were filed against Capangpangan and Albotra, who were to undergo preliminary investigation.
The charge against Otadoy was raffled off to Graft Investigator Vicente Roble for inquest investigation but the proceedings were not concluded because of time
constraints.
The inquest investigation proceeded the following day with the anti-graft office charging Otadoy for robbery alone before the court.
The charges against Capangpangan and Albotra were docketed separately and endorsed for raffling to an investigator.
In Roble’s resolution, the anti-graft office only found probable cause that Otadoy, together with Capangpangan and Albotra, took the wristwatch and gold necklace of the complainant, Reuel Lerio.
Lerio claimed he was walking with his son toward their vehicle parked inside a church compound when two armed men, later identified as Capangpangan and Albotra, approached them.
Otadoy later arrived with food.
Capangpangan then drove everybody to a parking lot using Lerio’s vehicle.
The three policemen allegedly threatened to arrest Lerio for shabu trafficking, with evidence they planned to plant, unless Lerio pays them P2 million.
Capangpangan then took Lerio’s watch and necklace, which resulted in the filing of the case. (KNR/JGA)
