LRA exec sacked for extortion

Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero suspended yesterday the head of the Commission on the Settlement of Land Problems, after he was caught receiving P30,000 in bribe money in an entrapment laid out by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) last Wednesday.

Placed under preventive suspension was Rufino Mijares, chairman of the commission, an office under the Land Registration Authority, an attached agency of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The PAOCTF planned the entrapment after a certain Salud Sabado complained that Mijares demanded P50,000 from her in exchange for a favorable decision of her petition for land ownership which has remained pending with the commission since 1997.

Last Monday, Sabado and PO2 Rosalie Santos, who posed as her sister, went to Mijares' office in Diliman, Quezon City and arranged the deal. The two promised to return two days later to make the payment.

At about 12:30 p.m. last Wednesday, Mijares reportedly advised Sabado to go home and return to his office with the money, which he reduced to P30,000.

But it was Santos instead who went to Mijares' office with the marked cash at about 5:15 p.m. PAOCTF agents, led by Superintendent Rodolfo Azurin and Chief Superintendent Ricardo Dandan, pounced on him as soon as he got the money.

Charges of bribery and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act are being readied against Mijares.

Tuquero has designated senior state prosecutor Teresita Domingo as acting head of the Commission on the Settlement of Land Problems, as Mijares is being investigated by state prosecutors Aida Macapagal and Perpetua Pano.

Tuquero earlier had ordered a probe of Mijares after receiving a complaint last March 27 accusing Mijares of "grave misconduct, abuse of authority, gross incompetence, ignorance of the law and nepotism."

Tuquero then ordered state counsel Nader Sarabosing to dig deeper into the anonymous complainant's allegations.

Reporters failed to get Mijares' comment on the bribery charges because his lawyer advised him to invoke his right to remain silent.