Saturday, September 09, 2006
Hard-hitting Tulfo brothers sued for 'robbery', 'extortion'
AFTER the multimillion-peso libel suit filed against them by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, the Tulfo brothers are again facing yet another legal battle.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) operatives on Friday filed five counts of robbery/extortion charges against columnist Ramon tulfo and brothers Raffy and Erwin Tulfo, who are also broadcast journalists before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Also charged were the brothers' alleged bagman, Jimmy Salgado, a resident of 2153 Narra St., United I, Parañaque City. He was arrested last August 17 on the basis of a warrant of arrest for libel issued by the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 58.
In the investigations conducted by special task force chief Reynaldo Esmeralda, Salgado allegedly approached businessmen Dolores Domingo and Chito Orbeta sometime March 2002, informing them of the impending accusations of Raffy Tulfo in his column, unless they would give him P30,000 to P50,000.
The failure of the Domingo and Orbeta to produce the amount resulted in the publication of alleged defamatory remarks against them that went on until they decided to file a case for libel against Tulfo on July 19, 2006 before the Manila RTC Branch 51.
Sometime in July 2006, another malicious publication against Domingo and Orbeta was published by Ramon Tulfo in his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. A few days later, Salgado approached the complainants, soliciting P50,000 in exchange for the cessation of further bad publicity.
This prompted them to seek NBI assistance and to file a complaint against Salgado and the Tulfo brothers for robbery/extortion, libel and harassment
Esmeralda said when they conducted background investigation on Salgado, they found out about the arrest warrant against him issued by the Makati court on a separate libel case.
While in detention, Salgado, with the assistance of his counsel, Christopher Orly Garcia, executed a sworn statement giving in detail the extortion activities of the Tulfo brothers, including Erwin.
Salgado told investigators how he was "used" by the brothers in allegedly collecting monthly extortion money from officials and employees of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), in exchange for the cessation of criticism on radio programs and newspaper columns of the brothers.
Upon learning of the filing of complaint against the siblings, four officials and employees of the BOC, namely Horacio Suansing, Juan Tan, Lilian Veces and Amando Quebec went to the NBI to corroborate the complainants' statements.
They alleged that on different occasions, through threat and intimidation, Ramon extorted money and goods from them. They further claimed it was Salgado who received money for Ramon except in one occasion wherein Ramon's secretary received a cellular phone for him. (ECV/Sunnex)
(September 9, 2006 issue)
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