Hardware firm charges private eye with falsifying documents

MANILA, Philippines – A private investigator was charged yesterday before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office with falsification of private documents, use of falsified documents and perjury for allegedly securing a search warrant with the use of falsified documents.

In his complaint, Robert Capuchino, Herco Trading Inc. logistics manager, said private investigator Jairus Abiera applying for and got a search warrant from a Nueva Ecija court for a Bulacan warehouse using fake documents with a forged signature, and enforcing it on a different address.

The Guimba, Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court Branch 31, issued search warrants after Abiera convinced Malolos, Bulacan police Chief Inspector Julius Caesar Mana to file an application for search warrants, based on his statement to the police, he added.

Albert Velasco, Herco’s lawyer, said Abiera, in applying for the warrant on April 12, told the court in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, that he bought a claw hammer and a hacksaw blade from a warehouse in 367 Rodriguez street in Marilao, Bulacan and also submitted an invoice for the alleged purchase with the heading “SPI Marketing Inc.”

“I can guarantee that he would not be able to present the original because we know it was all a cut-and-paste job,” he said. “SPI Marketing is only a department in Herco and therefore has no invoice of its own. We will present evidence later to prove this point and show that Abiera is a fake and must go to jail for it.”

Velasco said Abiera lied all the way because there was no such address in the first place as certified by the barangay captain, and that Abiera could not have bought anything from Herco’s Marilao warehouse, which was virtually abandoned. Herco’s operating warehouse is in Malinta.

Velasco said the invoice supposedly from SPI Marketing was a fabrication because no such company exists and the signature on it allegedly by a Herco emplo-yee was a forgery. Abiera submitted only a photo copy of the SPI Marketing invoice to the court, he added.

Velasco said Abiera had made it appear that his Swedish client was into selling counterfeit products in an apparent “frame up” to destroy Herco’s business reputation. Herco controls about 60 percent of the market in the country for tools, he added.

Among the brands they carry are Bahco and Fish and Hook. It also carries brands such as Stanley, Yale and 3M, and is among the country’s biggest corporate taxpayers, he added.

Velasco said after getting the search warrant, Abiera enforced himself with a policeman in tow on Herco’s abandoned warehouse at 367 Waling-Waling street although 367 Rodriguez street was the specified address on the warrant.

Abiera claimed certain counterfeit products were seized during the search and brought them to a private warehouse, he added.

He only submitted to the court the items seven days later, enough time for him to do anything with them, Velasco said.

Abiera, claiming to be private investigator for Swedish firm Kapman Aktiebolag (Kapman AB), had accused Herco Trading Inc. of violating Republic Act 8293 for trademark infringement for alleged unlawful distribution and sale of counterfeit versions of hand hacksaw blades and claw hammers that are being manufactured by Kapman AB.

Abiera claimed to be the “duly authorized attorney-in-fact” of Kapman AB who is empowered to take legal action against persons or businesses suspected of infringing the Swedish company’s trademarks and IPR.