THE Regional State Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday, December 13, finally disclosed the names of the three prosecutors allegedly involved in case fixing inside the City Prosecutor's Office (CPO).
Regional State Prosecutor Jaime Umpa named Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Allan Radaza, Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Ble-sire Labuntog and former officer-in-charge of the CPO, then City Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag, as the prominent prosecutors who supposedly fixed cases in exchange for money.
Umpa said the result of its fact-finding investigation has already been submitted to the Department of Justice on December 8.
He said he strongly recommended the filing of administrative as well as criminal cases against the three prosecutors.
"Last Thursday, I personally delivered to the Office of Secretary the copy of the final report of the investigation conducted by Regional Assistant Prosecutor Irene Meso," Umpa said.
"In our letter to the Secretary, we strongly recommend that appropriate action be taken against the prosecutors who are named by the investigation, because they are somehow partners of Genard Abejo in relation to the entrapment proceedings," he said.
Umpa said they believe the amount of evidence they have gathered is more than enough to warrant criminal and administrative cases against the three prosecutors.
"The ball is now with the Secretary of Justice,” Umpa said.
Umpa said other city prosecutors were named by the complainants but there is no ample evidence against them.
He said the report to the DOJ included their names as they were also involved based on the initial reports.
Prosecutor Pacuribot, Ilisan, Ecol, and associate prosecuting attorney Omar Sharief Naga were also named in the initial reports on the supposed case fixing scandal.
Umpa said one of the three prosecutors named has gone on-leave and is already thinking about resigning from his position this month.
It can be recalled that Genard Abejo, an administrative aide of the CPO, was arrested last November 11, in an entrapment operation conducted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Northern Mindanao.
Abejo was arrested and charged in court with robbery/extortion and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, for allegedly demanding money from families of accused in exchange for the lowering of charges against their kin.
Abejo was able to post the P130,000 bail last November 15.
In a copy of the fact-finding investigation report, it was learned that Abejo was constantly communicating with Radaza, Labuntog, and Macauyag in relation to the cybercrime and rape cases pending preliminary investigation before them.
The said investigation reveals that Abejo, who was assigned as process server of the CPO, can get confidential information from Radaza and Labuntog, particularly about the two cases and its outcome, and that the prosecutors were also "more than willing to give Abejo the important information."
The complainants, according to the fact-finding, have given the prosecutors, through Abejo, P25,000 for the raffling of the cases, P5,000 for a "night drinking with Radaza" and another P60,000 to Radaza for a basketball event in Bukidnon.
They also gave Abejo P350, 000 which was used as mark money for the entrapment operation.