DOJ starts probe of erring fiscals

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun an administrative investigation of the prosecutors who were involved in alleged irregularities in two cases singled out by President Arroyo in her State of the Nation Address last Monday.

Justice Undersecretary Manuel Teehankee said the two cases are the filing of charges against personal products maker Kimberly-Clark despite the withdrawal of charges by the complainant, and the downgrading of charges against two men accused of kidnapping.

"This only emphasizes the importance of the criminal justice system and the judicial system as an important tool in the political economy and in economic development," Teehankee said.

He said Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez ordered Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Nilo Mariano to conduct the probe to comply with the order the President announced during her speech before Congress on Monday.

Under investigation are San Fernando, La Union prosecutor Oscar Corpus, who handled the kidnapping case filed by La Union businesswoman Rowena Tiu, and Quezon City prosecutor Raymond Jonathan Lledo, who handled the Kimberly-Clark case.

Mariano said Lledo was ordered to explain why he insisted on filing charges of violating the Water Code of the Philippines against Kimberly-Clark (Philippines) Inc. although the complainant, a certain Mary Catherine Foronda, had already filed an affidavit of desistance.

Foronda, as secretary general of a University of the Philippines student environmental group, charged around January 2000 that Kimberly-Clark, being a foreign company, violated the Water Code which reserves to Filipinos the right to exploit the country’s water resources.

Quezon City prosecutors explained that in a congressional investigation, Kimberly-Clark admitted that it was 87 percent foreign owned and, under the Water Code, had no right to draw or exploit the country’s water resources.

The prosecutors further explained that while Lledo was the investigating prosecutor of the case, the trial prosecutor was Vesta Victoria Villamor, who submitted yesterday an official report to the DOJ.

In her report, Villamor explained that Lledo found Kimberly-Clark liable for violating the Water Code but the multinational company filed a petition for review with the DOJ.

While the petition for review was pending, Foronda filed her affidavit of desistance but failed to appear in court to affirm her affidavit as required by law, forcing the court to push through with the case.

But the court also opted to await the DOJ resolution on the petition for review, which affirmed Lledo’s finding of probable cause, before dismissing the case in February.

In her SONA, however, the President claimed Kimberly-Clark pulled their investments out of the country and relocated to Thailand supposedly because Lledo insisted on filing the case despite the affidavit of desistance.

On the Tiu kidnapping case, Mariano said Corpus has also been asked why he should not be administratively charged for downgrading the kidnapping charges Tiu filed against two of the men who kidnapped her in September 2001.

Tiu was kidnapped in La Union on Sept. 27, 2001 and brought to Cavite where her seven kidnappers, all Chinese nationals, negotiated for her P10 million ransom.

Tiu was released after her family paid the ransom but police later raided the house in Cavite where she was held and arrested all the seven perpetrators whom she positively identified in police lineup.

She filed kidnapping charges on Oct. 7 against Zhang Du, Zhang Xiwang, Henry Ong, Xu You Kwang (alias Johnny Chua Co) 21; Shi Jian Hui (alias Jacky King Sy) 22; Wu Lim Chang, 25; Lim Jiang Fem (alias Jason Lim), 28; and Shi Chun Qi (alias Jacky Sy Ocampo), 23.

But Corpus charged Zhang Du and Henry Ong only as accessories and released them on bail while the Chinese embassy insisted that the two were innocent of the kidnapping charges.

"My positive identification was made possible because I was never blindfolded during my entire ordeal. The two claim innocence when, in fact, they were even there at the safehouse in Cavite," she told The STAR earlier this year.

The incident led Justice Secretary Hernando Perez to issue a memorandum circular to all prosecutors all over the country ordering them not to entertain any out-of-court settlement of kidnapping cases.