Friday, September 05, 2008 NBI entraps court worker who allegedly used fake warrant By Karlon N. Rama Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A TRIAL court employee fell into the hands of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents yesterday, after an entrapment held right outside the Palace of Justice.
Arvin Oca, assigned to the first branch of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC), attempted to run but got collared by agents, one of whom posed as a taxi driver.
Oca, according to the affidavit submitted by complainant Edgar Garciso, asked for P150,000 in exchange for suppressing a search warrant supposedly scheduled to go out in Garciso’s name.
The warrant was supposed to be for drugs and its impending issuance was allegedly requested by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) 7.
Oca, alleged Garciso, told him the Pdea agent who requested the warrant from Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Enriqueta Belarmino was his friend and could be persuaded to drop the case for a sum.
Likewise, Garciso added, Oca claimed to have a friend inside Judge Belarmino’s court who could have the application “disapproved by the court.” Oca works in the sala of Judge Monalila Tecson.
A source inside the agency said that Belarmino called the NBI headquarters yesterday afternoon to ask who among his staff members Oca referred to.
The same source, however, said that Oca, merely made that claim up. Oca refused requests for interviews.
“There is no indication that the warrant Garciso was shown really came from the RTC,” the source added.
Garciso, in his affidavit, said Oca sent him a mobile phone message last Aug. 31, seeking a meeting. He said he knew Oca as their children attend the same school in Talisay City.
They met at the Gaisano Fiesta Mall on the same day.
Meeting
Garciso said Oca immediately told him about the application for a search warrant in his name and told him that the document was pending approval at Judge Belarmino’s sala.
“He further told me that the Pdea agent in charge of the application is his friend that he could intervene in my behalf. Oca further intimated to me that he has a close friend among the employees assigned to Judge Belarmino and that he could have the application disapproved by the court or have the same withdrawn by his Pdea friend, provided that I gave him P150,000 to satisfy the court employee involved and his Pdea friend,” Garciso alleged.
Garciso said the information “totally disturbed” him.
He said he knew right away that this was a “simple case of harassment and extortion” and stressed that he is “not involved in such kind of nefarious activities.”
However, he added, he also feared a raid might actually take place, with him being indicted using planted evidence.
“I did not give a categorical answer and instead advised him that I would sort things out by consulting my family about it,” he said.
Con
Garciso said Oca sent him a message via mobile phone the following day, Monday, and warned him that unless the amount is paid, the application will be processed and a raid was “sure to happen.”
He added that Oca followed this up with another message asking that they meet at San Carlos Heights in Pardo on Wednesday, Sept. 3.
During that meeting, Oca supposedly showed Garciso a copy of the warrant application, consisting of four pages, but refused to give him a copy as it might “compromise his work.”
Garciso said he consulted his lawyer, Louie Arma, and was told to come clean and seek the NBI’s help.
Powder
Lawyer Ernesto Macabare, NBI 7 head agent and executive officer, said an entrapment was then organized.
The plan included Garciso making the payoff with money marked with a special tracing powder near the San Jose bakeshop, right outside the Palace of Justice’s rear exit gate.
Garciso arrived in a taxi driven by an undercover NBI agent and, as soon as the money changed hands, the agents took Oca down.
Court employees just returning to work from lunch break saw the incident take place and initially thought somebody was being robbed, until they heard the arresting agents identify themselves.
Oca, Macabare said, also dropped the money when about to be taken down.
He tested positive for the tracing powder when examined at the NBI forensic laboratory.
