Pampanga fiscal nabbed for extortion

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested last Thursday a provincial prosecutor while accepting P10,000 he allegedly demanded from a complainant.

Lawyer Lauro Reyes, acting NBI regional director, said provincial prosecutor Otto Macabulos, 55, is now detained at the NBI regional office in Clark Field upon the request of the San Fernando City prosecutor’s office who feared for his safety in the provincial jail.

Macabulos had also been the subject of motions for inhibition filed by private lawyers for dismissing controversial cases in Pampanga, including the massacre of three youths in Mabalacat town last February and the rape-abduction of a female shopping mall employee here also last February. The respondents in the dismissed cases were said to belong to well-off families.

NBI investigator Rolando Jarilla said a certain Jerry Catungal filed a complaint against Macabulos with the NBI regional office last Sept. 6 after the fiscal demanded P20,000 so he could "expedite" two estafa cases which Catungal had filed with the prosecutor’s office.

At about 11 a.m. last Sept. 7, the NBI said a certain Dodong, a utility boy at Macabulos’ office, called up Catungal on his cellular phone and told him to drop by the prosecutor’s office and bring P20,000.

Catungal obliged and went to Macabulos’ office at 4 p.m. that day, but with only P10,000 in cash.

According to the NBI, the prosecutor accepted the money supposedly as downpayment, and promised to expedite his resolutions on the two estafa cases and file them with the court within a week.

Last Sept. 20, Catungal, however, found out that the cases had not been filed in court as Macabulos had promised. 

"Infuriated, Catungal called up Dodong and inquired on the failure of Macabulos to file the cases and the former (Dodong) told him he should first give to Macabulos the remaining P10,000 on Sept. 21 to finally settle the matter," the NBI said in a report.

NBI agents, led by Jarilla, planned an entrapment operation against Macabulos at about 12:45 p.m. last Thursday.

Together with a television crew, the NBI agents positioned themselves at the Hall of Justice where Macabulos held office, and pounced on him as he received the marked money from Catungal at a store. Macabulos was later found positive for ultraviolet powder.    

The STAR tried to interview Macabulos at the NBI’s airconditioned office in Clark Field, but he insisted that he would issue statements "only in the right forum." The room was not locked and he had no handcuffs.

Reyes said charges of bribery and graft have been filed against Macabulos with the San Fernando City prosecutor’s office, and not with the provincial prosecutor’s office where he is connected with.

The cases, however, are bailable: P20,000 for bribery, and P30,000 for graft. As of yesterday, Macabulos, however, had not posted bail.

Lawyer Noel Quioc said Macabulos dismissed the case against two suspects in the killing of three youths in Sitio Aguso in Barangay San Francisco, Mabalacat town last Feb. 3.

"I appealed the case and asked that Macabulos be inhibited from it," he told The STAR.

Quioc said Macabulos dismissed the case despite a survivor’s testimony.

"The suspects produced a certification that they were attending classes at the Pampanga Agricultural College at 7 a.m. on Feb. 3 and this was accepted as sufficient by Macabulos for their exoneration. But the killings happened earlier at 3 a.m. as testified by the surviving witness," he said.

Senior Superintendent Nicanor Targa, intelligence chief of the Pampanga police, recalled that Macabulos also dismissed the case against a scion of a rich family in Angeles City who was accused of abducting and raping a female employee of a shopping mall here last February. 

The victim was allegedly brought to different places and even tortured with cigarette burns while she was being molested.

"What I know is that the family of the victim appealed the case with a petition to also inhibit Macabulos," Targa said.