Complaint filed vs solon, 6 others

Charges of illegal detention, grave coercion and "subornation of perjury" were filed with the Department of Justice yesterday against Iloilo City Rep. Raul Gonzales and six others for allegedly forcing a female bank employee to press rape charges against the publisher of a community newspaper in Western Visayas.

In a nine-page complaint-affidavit, Melanie Valerio alleged that Gonzales, his lawyer-son Raul Jr., Iloilo chief prosecutor Efrain Baldago, assistant city prosecutor Jose Naranjo, lawyer Salvador Cabaluna, Rodolfo Divinagracia and Noel Cabobos pressured her to sue Bernie Miaque, publisher of Daily Informer, for rape.

Last March, she claimed that the congressman, with the help of Divinagracia, offered legal assistance for her uncle, George de Guzman, who is detained at the Baguio City jail for homicide.

According to Valerio, she and an aunt left their hometown in Pangasinan and went to Iloilo, only to find out that Gonzales, along with Divinagracia, Cabaluna and Cabobos, whom Miaque had all dismissed, "only wanted to use her in a campaign to vilify and harass" the newspaper publisher.

"I was dismayed, even alarmed, that instead of discussing the problem of my uncle as promised us by Divinagracia, Gonzales talked ill of Miaque for half an hour as he tried to convince me to file a case against the latter," she claimed.

Gonzales and Miaque are enemies, the former having filed 45 libel cases and attempted murder charges against the latter. Miaque also intends to run for Congress in next year's local elections.

Valerio alleged that she was detained at Gonzales' residence for eight days and was made to sign an affidavit. She said she even "affixed a cross sign beside her signature to indicate" that this was done "under duress."