Ombuds to probe Councilor Carillo

City Councilor Gerardo Carillo is not yet off the hook even if the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has decided not to file charges against him for his alleged intervention in the police operation.

This was because the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas is looking into possible violations he committed.

Acting Ombudsman director Virginia Palanca-Santiago yesterday ordered a fact-finding investigation, based on media reports, into Carillo's alleged intervention in the operation conducted by the CIDG against a businessman who was reportedly engaged in selling counterfeit beauty products.

Santiago said the anti-graft office would ask the CIDG as to whether the media reports were true. As soon as the police would confirm, Santiago said they would also ask Carillo to give his side.

But CIDG regional director Jorge Copuz said he would not file a case against Carillo. "After consultation with my men, I decided not to file criminal complaints against Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo."

Earlier, the CIDG was contemplating to file obstruction of justice against Carillo after he allegedly interfered in its operation and barred his client to be present at the CIDG office for questioning.

Carillo reportedly asked the raiding team that he will be the one to escort his client to the CIDG office during last Friday's raid, but the councilor and his client did not show up.

The CIDG yesterday afternoon filed the violation of Intellectual Property Rights against Carillo's client, John Sanchez, owner of Yulian Marketing, and his two business associates Ben Dy and Ki Gingy.

It also submitted the affidavits of CS Trading, which is the exclusive distributor of TOP GEL beauty products.

Those who violated Presidential Decree 1829, otherwise known as the obstruction of justice law, will be penalized with prison correctional and a fine ranging from P1,000 to P6,000.

An incident report will be submitted to the regional police office, a copy of which will be furnished to Camp Crame, Copuz said.

Corpuz reiterated that the CIDG office is open 24 hours a day, which was contrary to Carillo's claim that it was closed when he visited it Friday evening.

The councilor had said he came back the next morning only to find out that there were no policemen in the office since they were out for a sports activity.

The CIDG also welcomed the move of Mayor Tomas Osmena to conduct a separate investigation into the case.

Corpuz said he is willing to give the report to Osmeña if he will ask for it. The CIDG report stated that Carillo interfered and promised to turn over his client to its office.

Meanwhile, to prevent a repeat of the incident, Osmeña will be directing elected city officials not to "intervene" in police operations unless there are media personnel present.

Osmeña said the presence of the media would assure the public of transparency on the side of the elected official that he/she is addressing the need of his constituents. Transparency, the mayor said, would dispel speculations of conflict of interest.

The mayor believes that it is inevitable for the constituents to seek the help of public officials during certain situations like what happened to Carillo's case.

In a separate interview, Carillo said he would look into the case considering that the CIDG did not accuse him of intervening in the operation. The police agency reportedly told him it was a case of misunderstanding and even pointed to the media as having misinterpreted the issue.

The CIDG personnel raided the boutiques that allegedly sold fake beauty creams along Colon Street. Carillo had denied he intervened in the operation, arguing that there was no arrest since the search warrant did not name a specific person but only the product that was suspected of being counterfeit.

He said that since the police confiscated suspected Top Gel Pearl Creams from his client's store, it must be proven that these were indeed fakes. He said his client is also a victim since he has no way of determining whether he bought the original products.

Carillo also claimed that Dy and Gingy, who were reportedly seen supervising the operation of the stores that was raided, were just visiting the stores and had nothing to do with the fake products. This conflicted with the claim of the raiding team that they saw Dy and Gingy operating the cash registers and selling the products.

Carillo said that with the controversy, he is now more inclined to further defend the rights of his clients. - Fred P. Languido, Ramil V. Ayuman, Edwin Ian Melecio and Joeberth Ocao