Ex-DFA man posts bail

A former career minister of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was arrested yesterday by members of the Central Police District-City Hall Detachment on the strength of a warrant arrest issued for him by a Metropolitan Trial Court judge for the crime of grave coercion.

Judge Maria Elisa Sempio-Diy of Branch 34, issued the arrest warrant for Restituto de Guzman, who also served as chief of protocol of Speaker Jose de Venecia from 1992 to 1996.

The respondent, a lawyer by profession, was attending a hearing at the Quezon City Hall of Justice when police arrived outside the courtroom to arrest him at around 10 a.m.

The DFA personnel office said he was a former career minister assigned at the Philippine Embassy in Brazil.

Also charged with grave coercion were Rex Alboran, Nestor Corpuz and John Jalani, all security guards previously working for De Guzman. De Guzman posted a surety bond for the P60,000 recommended bail for the five counts of grave coercion filed against him.

The case against the former envoy was filed by Romel Udtohan, Conrado Montemayor, Eric Bautista, warehouseman and project engineer, respectively, Darold Comse and Rolyn Letigio, laborers of Iron Builders and Development Corp., which had been the builder-contractor of De Guzman’s 12-storey Excelsior Plaza I condominium located in Roces, Quezon City.

The complainants alleged that on March 6, 1999, De Guzman deployed 23 security guards inside the construction premises, and ordered the demolition of their warehouse.

The respondents allegedly barred complainants from entering the work area.

De Guzman denied the charges saying it was impossible for him to commit the crime because he was still recovering from a thyroid operation when the structures inside the buildings he owns were demolished.

The complainants filed the case against the respondents in 1999 but it was dismissed by the prosecutor’s office. The Department of Justice (DOJ) reversed the decision and recommended the filing of charges.

"There is no question that intimidation was employed in preventing complainants from entering the work premises and doing their job. The demolition of their warehouse by respondent security guards is enough compulsion for complainants to stop working and entering the premises against their will," the DOJ said in a four-page resolution.

De Guzman told reporters that he was unaware that the DOJ had recommended the filing of the case and that there was a standing warrant of arrest for him.

He alleged that the workers turned his building into a boarding house and created noise at night. De Guzman also claimed that Iron Builders abandoned the project on Nov. 28, 1998, and was allowed enough time to pull out its construction materials and equipment.