IBP official belies fiscal’s bribe rap

CEBU CITY — An Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) official, who was accused by a government prosecutor of attempting to bribe her to "take it easy" in the case of suspected Hong Kong triad members, believes that the accusation was meant to hide a more sordid tale in the prosecution.

Lawyer Gines Abellana said the accusation of assistant prosecutor Mary Ann Castro Roa that he attempted to bribe her by leaving P10,000 on her table last Friday was "highly preposterous."

Abellana said the money might be Roa’s own which she set up in order to cover something up.

He said he believes that there is a "a more serious tale" in the prosecution of the case against suspected triad members Giovanni Gimenez, his brother Jovan and Victor Ceniza.

"We must not lose track of the fact that she admitted previous attempts to bribe her purposely to lay down the predicate that will suit the scenario she was feeding to the media," Abellana said in his reply to chief city prosecutor Jose Pedrosa’s letter.

Regional state prosecutor Hernando Masangkay has directed Pedrosa to investigate the allegation and to document it.

An anti-crime official, who asked for anonymity, also believes that the alleged bribery had been consummated.

The source said Roa might have been pressured by the defense, forcing her to create a scenario for her graceful exit.

Abellana also believes that Roa’s claim that she was bribed is probably meant to temporarily stop the media from feasting on the perceived bungling of the case by her and her co-prosecutors.

He reiterated that he has no interest in the outcome of the case because he is not a counsel of any of the accused.

He said it was also illogical for him to bribe only one of the three prosecutors handling the case.

Roa alleged that Abellana left a white envelope on her desk with the threat of becoming his enemy forever if she did not accept what it contained.

Roa said she went after Abellana when she discovered that the envelope contained P10,000 but that she failed to catch him.

A day after Roa reported the alleged bribery attempt, another lawyer came forward to claim it was Roa herself who had demanded bribes for herself and her two co-prosecutors.

Lawyer Pedro Leslie Salva, Gimenez’s counsel, identified the two other prosecutors as Tolomeo Dinoy and William Canta.

Salva alleged that Roa demanded P150,000 from his client, Gimenez, the main accused in the case, in exchange for her not opposing any motion for bail last December.

Salva claimed that Roa called him to her house and there made the demand, the money ostensibly to be split evenly among herself, Dinoy and Canta. — Freeman News Service