A BARANGAY councilman spent the night in police detention after two Cebu City Hall employees picked him up for failing to return a City Hall-issued vehicle.
The police only let Rodolfo Tabasa go before 4 p.m. yesterday after Judge Pamela Baring-Uy ordered him released “on recognizance” to five lawyers, including incoming Cebu City Councilor Jose Daluz III.
Daluz went to the Municipal Trial Court in Cities at 11 a.m. yesterday to file Tabasa’s motion for bail.
“He was not informed that he was being arrested,” Daluz said.
On Friday night, about two hours after two General Services Office (GSO) employees went to Tabasa’s home and escorted him to a police station, Councilor-elect Jocelyn Pesquera asked the Police Station 10 to record the incident in a blotter.
She reported it as a case of kidnapping, serious illegal detention, grave coercion and unlawful arrest, and named those responsible as Acting Mayor Margarita Osmeña, GSO special assistant Ronald Malacora, and GSO personnel Kenneth Amar and Rafael Cabonilas.
That was at 10:40 p.m. Friday.
Interviewed yesterday, Acting Mayor Osmena denied that she was the one who had ordered Tabasa’s arrest. She said she did not know about the arrest until she was told about it yesterday.
“I was not the one (who ordered it) but maybe the law caught up with him. I only ordered the recall of the government-issued vehicles. If I filed charges, it was only with the Office of the Ombudsman. I did have a blotter (entry) about two and a half weeks ago. I supposed it triggered that,” she said.
Malacora, officer-in-charge of the GSO, also denied that two of his personnel had a hand in Tabasa’s arrest.
He told Sun.Star Cebu that the police had asked for his permission to bring along two GSO employees, so they could identify the City-issued vehicle that was in Tabasa’s custody.
Since the two were in charge of the property division inventory section, he asked them to accompany the police.
Continuing
“The only role our personnel had was the identification. Wala nanakop kay di sila police (They did not arrest anyone; they are not the police),” Malacora said.
City Legal Office officer-in-charge Eleodoro Diaz IV, however, said there were valid grounds for the arrest. On Osmeña’s instructions, he witnessed the barangay councilman’s release at 3:30 p.m. yesterday.
“If you fail to return the vehicle, that means you continue to violate the law. You can be arrested anytime, anywhere because that’s a continuing offense,” Diaz said.
He added that the failure to return the City’s vehicle amounted to malversation of public funds.
“They (Tabasa’s camp) can say whatever they want but we will defend them in accordance with the law,” Diaz said, referring to the GSO employees.
Daluz, however, believes the arrest was illegal.
“They said it was a citizen’s arrest. Why was it a citizen’s arrest when there were policemen? It can only happen when there is a private person present when there was a crime committed, wala’y police so siya mo arrest sa person to prevent the crime (but there are no police present, so the citizen makes the arrest to prevent the crime),” Daluz said.
‘Abominable’
The GSO personnel “should have asked for a warrant of arrest first,” he said.
Asked to comment on the incident, suspended Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama it was a way to harass a barangay official who is a known ally of Team Rama.
He said it was “appalling, abominable and too much.”
“I just feel bad, very, very, very bad about why these things should happen. Supposedly, for all intents and purposes, yes, I’m suspended but I’m still the mayor up to June 30,” he said in a phone interview.
He said his group’s lawyers will handle the matter.
Tabasa was among the 57 barangay officials charged with carnapping before the ombudsman’s office after failing to return their City-issued vehicles. Osmeña recalled all the vehicles for an inventory when she assumed office after Rama’s suspension began.
In a phone interview yesterday, Senior Insp. Rolito Supatan of the City Intelligence Bureau (CIB) said that the GSO had asked for assistance because they were concerned, but that the police had no direct hand in Tabasa’s arrest.
“Wala ta’y knowledge sa pagdakop ani (We had no knowledge of this arrest),” he said.
Late visit
The CIB personnel, he added, found out the reasons only after Amar and Cabonilas declared the citizen’s arrest.
Article 221 of the Revised Penal Code or the failure to make delivery of public funds or property was cited as one ground for Tabasa’s arrest.
He recalled that Amar and Cabonilas brought him to the police at 8:30 p.m. last Friday.
“Ako bitaw silang giingnan nga ang sakyanan imong tan-awon kay gadahom ko nga iyang dalhon. Okay ra ko. Wala man. Ako ra man (I told them that if it’s the vehicle they wanted, they can bring it. They didn’t. They brought me instead),” Tabasa said in an interview.
They had visited his home on Katipunan St., Sitio Bon-ami, Barangay Labangon with four police officers.
The GSO employees then asked him to go with them. He requested, since it was already beyond office hours that night, that they return on Monday.
Tabasa said he also offered to return the Hilux on Monday to the GSO, but Amar and Cabonilas insisted that he go with them. He said he asked for a copy of the memorandum to return the vehicles, but they didn’t provide him with one.
Bailed out
He then asked if they can settle the matter in Police Station 10 in Punta Prinsesa because it was nearer, but the chief there said the matter was not in their jurisdiction and referred them to the Cebu City Police Office, where the CIB belongs.
“Di gud ko mukuyog unta kay wala’y opisina igka Sabado og Dominggo unya namugos man gyud (I didn’t want to go with them because the offices would be closed on Saturday and Sunday, but they insisted),” he said.
Upon their arrival in CCPO, Amar and Cabonilas allegedly decided right then and there to detain Tabasa, invoking a citizen’s arrest.
Tabasa was then placed outside the detention cell in CCPO as it was already full, and the police did not handcuff him.
Two hours after the motion for bail was filed yesterday, Daluz and four other lawyers brought to the police the release order from Judge Baring-Uy. The other lawyers on the case are Benjamin Bongon, Ernesto Rama, Francisco Amit Jr. and Oliver Booc.
Tabasa thanked the lawyers for their help.