Camp of wanted Pagadian mayor decries arrest warrant

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of fugitive Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co claimed yesterday that his constitutional right to due process was violated when a court ordered his arrest for his alleged involvement in the Aman Futures Group investment scam.

Co has refused to surrender and questioned the validity of the arrest warrant.

Trixie Angeles, counsel for Co, said her client is not hiding but only wants to avail himself of legal remedies in questioning his indictment by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for syndicated estafa, a non-bailable crime, during a crucial period in his campaign for a seat in Congress.

Angeles said the arrest warrant issued by Iligan Regional Trial Court Branch 1 was “of dubious validity.”

“The DOJ issued a resolution on its preliminary investigation without giving us a chance to file a motion for reconsideration. The Supreme Court has already issued a rule on matters such as this, saying that an MR is part of the preliminary investigation. Without it, the investigation is still open. And if investigation is still open, courts still have no jurisdiction,” she said.

She said her client would also contest the allegation by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima that he “had advance information about his arrest, that’s why the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) failed to serve the warrant on him last Friday.”

“From the looks of it, it is the NBI which had advance information on when exactly the warrant was going to come out. How did they know when it was going to come out? They were already serving the warrant within the hour. Why are they so interested in this particular respondent?” Angeles said.

She said the DOJ might have rushed the filing of the case in court.

“Why did they want a warrant right away? Is it to coincide with the election period? They are trying to arrest a candidate right smack during the campaign season and pull out all the stops to ensure that it happens even at the expense of violating the rules,” she said.

She argued that there was no basis to indict Co and questioned the basis of the DOJ resolution.

“Consider the act that supposedly constitutes the charge of estafa – allegedly collecting a four percent tax on deposits of Aman Futures. Maybe someone should tell (Revenue) Commissioner (Kim) Henares that the collection of taxes is an evidence of estafa because that’s what it says in the DOJ resolution,” Angeles said.

She said they asked for a copy of the DOJ resolution indicting Co, but were not given one on the day the case was filed in court.   

De Lima had earlier instructed the NBI to intensify the manhunt for Co and warned that those who harbor him would face charges.