QC fiscal nabbed for P80,000 extort

MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima reminded prosecutors to keep their integrity intact after agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday arrested a Quezon City prosecutor for alleged extortion.

Assistant Prosecutor Raul Desembrana was nabbed in an entrapment operation in a Quezon City restaurant after allegedly asking physician Alex Montes for P80,000 in exchange for the dismissal of a complaint for unjust vexation filed by a retired military chaplain.

Montes is a member of the “Morong 43,” the health workers arrested by the military in 2010 for allegedly being communist rebels.

De Lima said she would not tolerate illegal activities especially committed by prosecutors, who serve as the frontline service providers of the agency.

“I said it before and will say it again – at the risk of causing occasional embarrassment to us as an institution, I don’t mind authorizing such entrapment operations even on a regular basis, if only to rid our ranks of misfits and scalawags,” De Lima said.

She added that integrity “should be and ought to be our bedrock, and is still the best and only policy of our agency.”

Desembrana, who handled the estafa case against television host Jose Manalo’s wife, will be charged before the ombudsman for bribery, graft and violation of the code of ethical standards for public employees.

“He repeatedly asked Montes and his lawyer for money in exchange for the dismissal of the case, so they sought Justice Secretary De Lima’s help,” said a source from the NBI.

Montes even showed them a draft resolution which Desembrana allegedly planned to release once the money was paid, the source said.  – With Aie Balagtas See