4 Mandaluyong cops ordered to answer illegal arrest raps

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered four officers of the Mandaluyong City police to answer the illegal arrest and arbitrary detention charges filed against them by a Japanese businessman.

Inspector Jesus Breyner Mansibang, Police Officer 3 Elmer Crispin Tatco and PO1s Zedrik de la Cruz and Robert Ryan Noe were ordered to answer the criminal complaint within 10 days from receipt of the ombudsman’s directive.

Japanese businessman Shuichi Tajima claimed that he was arrested and detained illegally by the police officers on June 9.

In a two-page order issued by the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (MOLEO) recently, the anti-graft agency directed Guevent Investments Development Corp. president Ricardo Guevarra, chief finance officer Robert David Guevarra, security and services manager Rolly Masangkay, Marcus Valdez II, and two lawyers who remain unidentified to file their counter affidavits.

The order was signed by MOLEO director Dennis Garcia and approved by Deputy Ombudsman Cyril Ramos.

Based on Tajima’s complainant, he was picked up and detained by the police officers without a warrant of arrest on accusations of unlawful use of an alias.

Tajima, identifying himself as an investor in the manufacture and distribution of electric tricycles or e-trikes, said he was freed only after being assisted by senior assistant prosecutor Leilani Rodriguez, deputy city prosecutor Bernardino Camba and Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon of the Department of Justice.

He was ordered released and the charges against him by his former business partner were dismissed considering that he only signed a memorandum of agreement with Guevent in 2013 for “security reasons but not to conceal a crime or to defraud anyone.”

Tajima suspected his business partner of trying to takeover the e-trike business by setting him up or instigating him to commit the alleged crime so that he could be jailed and deported.

The ombudsman’s MOLEO office probes complaints filed against law enforcers and other uniformed personnel.