Cop cleared of robbery charge

A policeman was cleared of a robbery charge yesterday after two other policemen who were allegedly with him during the supposed incident were not included in the complaint.

SPO1 Jaime Otadoy of the Vice Control Section of the Cebu City Police Office was not alone on Aug. 21, 2007 in allegedly trying to shake down a suspect who paid an initial P200,000.

But because his two other alleged companions, PO3 Rey Albotra and PO2 Raneil Capangpangan, were not included in the complaint of the robbery charge that was filed against him, Regional Trial Court Judge Simeon Dumdum acquitted him of his charge yesterday.

Albotra was charged with robbery last August 24 before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas for allegedly taking the Guess watch and necklace of Reuel Lerio sometime in June 21, 2007 while Lerio was fetching his son in Sto. Niño.

“What the court finds most damaging to the cause of the prosecution is that while it charges Otadoy with conspiring and confederating with his men, Capangpangan and Albotra in divesting Reuel of his watch and necklace, it has not included Capangpangan and Albotra in the information.

To prove Otadoy’s guilt, it must be shown that the two others committed the robbery, and second Otadoy conspired with them in the commission of the act,” Dumdum said.

Dumdum added that by not including the two in the information, the prosecution effectively deprived them of due process.

“If the court cannot make such a pronouncement, it cannot declare Otadoy as conspiring with them of the act,” the decision read.

Dumdum said that all that the prosecution proved was that Otadoy just stood by, and did not stop his men from taking Lerio’s watch and necklace.

The court said that assuming that Otadoy’s men took Lerio’s belongings, there was no violence against or intimidation of persons, much less force upon things.

Lerio’s and his son noticed that there was a gun tucked in Albotra’s waist, but in the taking of the necklace the gun was not used.

Inspector Wilbert Parilla, Chief of the Vice Control Section, vouched for Otadoy’s good character and said he designated Otadoy as a team leader and that he had received no derogatory reports about Otadoy before the incident.

Otadoy denied that the NBI had conducted an entrapment operation last August 22, 2007 and that they only invited him for questioning. He said he had no idea that a case would be filed against him before the office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.

Otadoy admitted that he took Lerio’s wallet, but only to check if there were drugs in it. He said he did not see Lerio wearing a watch or necklace. — Jasmin R. Uy/BRP