Thursday, January 08, 2009 Relatives confirm Brodett’s drug activities
RELATIVES of Richard Brodett, one of the so-called “Alabang Boys” who fell in two separate buy bust operations of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) last September, said Wednesday that it was his mother Myra, who taught him how to use drugs.
Dave Brodett, a brother of Richard’s father Philip, told the House oversight committee on dangerous drugs that it was Myra who not only tolerated but pushed his son to do drugs.
“Butch (Philip’s nickname), I know that you don’t want to see your son in this place and in this situation. Butch’s wife, Myra, pushed their son to use drugs,” he said.
Dave, his wife Marissa, and their son Anthony attended the hearing with PDEA members who wanted to prove that Richard and his two companions, Joseph Tecson and Jorge Joseph, were guilty of peddling drugs.
The three suspects were arrested in Cubao, Quezon City and in Alabang, Muntinlupa after they yielded 60 tablets of Ecstasy, packets of marijuana, and sachets of cocaine.
They are still under the PDEA’s custody pending the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) review of State Prosecutor John Resado’s resolution dismissing the charges over what he called PDEA’s alleged technical lapses in carrying out the operation.
Resado is a former law student at the Far Eastern University of Felisberto Verano, the lawyer for Brodett and Tecson.
According to Dave, by failing to discipline his son and his wife, Philip tarnished their family’s name.
“I am doing this voluntarily for my family. All I want is to clear my name and my family’s name,” he said.
Anthony, who was also given a chance to speak, said his cousin had started using drugs when he was still a minor.
“We grow up together, and he (Richard) has been using illegal drugs since he was 16 years old. I’m not hypocrite, he also taught me how to use illegal drugs,” he said.
He attested that his aunt Myra tolerated Richard’s drug usage because she, herself, is a user.
According to him, there was even a time when the mother sent his son to Sagada to bring home marijuana.
“Before, I used to stay in their (Richard’s family) house, drugs are all over the place. But it appears in the media that they are innocent,” he added.
Moreover, Anthony said, Richard’s drug test for a driver’s license found him positive of drug usage in the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
On Tuesday, Major Ferdinand Marcelino, head of PDEA’s Special Enforcement Services, disclosed in the hearing that Joe Tecson alias Joetec offered him P3 million in exchange for not filing the charges against the “Alabang Boys,” but he rejected it.
Marcelino said that a "mistah" from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1994 approached him to drop the charges in exchange for the same amount which he also declined.
Automatic review
Also during the hearing, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. sided with PDEA in refusing to release the “Alabang Boys” pending an automatic review of the resolution dismissing the charges against them.
“If there is an automatic review then there is no automatic release,” Gonzalez said.
“If I finish reviewing this resolution and I feel that the resolution is correct no matter what the whole world says I will dismiss the case but if I find that this resolution is erroneous then I will overturn this resolution,” he said.
Gonzalez said the DOJ’s Memorandum Circular no. 46 provides that only suspects in cases carrying penalties of less than five years imprisonment can be released pending an automatic review.
He said the situation will be harder for PDEA if the suspects are released and the resolution is found flawed and must be reversed because the three could easily go into hiding.
The justice chief also told the committee that the copies of Resado’s resolution which he released to Verano and PDEA was still technically invalid pending the review.
“That resolution was released without my approval so that thing is technically not valid for purposes of effect because automatic review would be useless and there has been a memorandum from me for a long time already about this,” he said.
Gonzalez said the premature release of the document only make the suspects believe that they are already off-the-hook.
“The prosecutors know that cases of smuggling and drugs submit to automatic review and technically when the case is under automatic review, they should not release the resolution. But the resolution was released and it gave hope for the parties that they are now entitled to release because the case is over,” he said.
Contempt
Cebu Representative Antonio Cuenco, a member of the committee, initially moved that Resado be cited for contempt for “deliberately lying" and for "trifling with the committee and pulling our legs” but the motion did not prosper.
Gonzalez admitted having spoken with Verano in his office on December 23 where he told the lawyer that he was not releasing the suspects.
"What I have been confirming was the fact that on the afternoon of December 23, Mr. Counsel (Verano) came to see me together with one lady. He was precisely talking about the resolution, but I have not even seen (it). I cannot order their release because I have not even read the resolution,” he said.
The following day, Verano’s sent a draft release order bearing the DOJ’s letterhead to the office of Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor who later forwarded it to Gonzalez who refused to sign it.
“There was a document and it was a release order. It was a complete order, it was not a draft. My name was there, a little bit misspelled, and it just waited for my signature,” the justice secretary said.
“I have not talked to Attorney Verano about this order. I never imagined that an order for my signature would be sent to me,” he said.
Gonzalez admitted to the panel that Verano’s actions were unusual, especially since he has connections with Resado and Blancaflor.
“It is the first time your honor I encountered this situation. I believe that there are some ethical issues involved,” he said.
Verano told the panel the moment the prosecutors sign the resolution dismissing the charges, “then the case is already dismissed and automatic review is internal (within the DOJ).”
“Our theory is a person’s right to freedom kicks in already the moment the case is dismissed,” he said.
He admitted that he was only “overzealous in my work to provide service to my clients.” “Christmas time was around the corner and we were begging the secretary to release them and there was no case to speak of.”
The lawyer said his act of sending a draft release order for Gonzalez’s signature was a common practice in the US.
Verbal tussle
At one point in the hearing, Gonzalez and Marcelino raised their voices against each other when the alleged bribery attempts to free the suspects were discussed.
Gonzalez told Marcelino, a Marine officer, that he should have entrapped the callers who offered as much P3 million in exchange for dropping the case against the “Alabang Boys.”
“You did that to your people, you could do that to anybody else. You should correct these people in the same manner you corrected those people in Basilan (Province),” he said.
Marcelino retorted: “I’m not a war freak as you want to insinuate” to which Gonzalez shot back, “I'm not insinuating you are a war freak, I'm just telling you because you are being emotional here.”
Meanwhile, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered Gonzalez to finish the investigation into the alleged bribery of prosecutors to release the three drug suspects.
“The instruction to Secretary Gonzalez is to finish the investigation... That's why he personally directed Secretary Raul Gonzalez to submit the report soon in the light of this problem especially this is overtaken by the congressional hearing,” said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita in his weekly press conference.
“It goes without saying that the Secretary of Justice has to conduct all those review because as you said, this could very well be just the tip of the iceberg. What I heard from other people is that there really have been complaints from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that there are cases which otherwise should have been prosecuted but for some reason, they did not prosper. We can look into the bottom of this whole thing to be able to open all the other cases similarly situated,” he said.
“Of course, the President is concerned. Everyone is under the supervision of the President by the executive. And therefore the least that should happen is for this to be given a conclusion and for the DOJ secretary, as the reviewing authority, to come up with a recommendation that the President can act upon,” Ermita added. (WV/JMR/Sunnex)
