The Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Cavite formally filed criminal charges in court against an employee of the Office of the Ombudsman and a companion arrested in an entrapment operation for extorting money from a Bureau of Internal Revenue employee.
Charged before the Bacoor, Cavite Regional Trial Court for robbery was Antonio Alibio and a still unidentified cohort.
A P180,000-bail was recommended for Alibio’s temporary liberty.
Reports showed that Alibio, 45 and a process server at the head office of the Ombudsman, was arrested last Jan. 31 by National Bureau of Investigation agents inside the Chic Boy Restaurant in Bacoor, Cavite after receiving P200,000 marked money from Daniel Cariaga, a Cavite BIR employee.
Cavite provincial prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco said the investigation and indictment of Alibio was done under the joint DOJ-Ombudsman Anti-Corruption Initiatives memorandum agreement signed last year between Secretary Leila de Lima and Ombudswoman Conchita Morales Carpio.
Carpio earlier imposed a 90-day suspension against Alibio immediately after being informed by the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Cavite about his arrest.
The Ombudsman also lodged administrative and criminal charges against him for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
“There was enough evidence showing that Alibio demanded and received P200,000 from Cariaga so that an earlier complaint filed against the latter before the Ombudsman would not prosper. He was caught in flagrante delicto," Velasco said in a letter to the Ombudsman.
A certain Mark Haddad, a Sandiganbayan employee, earlier filed administrative and criminal complaints against Cariaga before the Ombudsman for allegedly poking a gun at him at a confrontation inside a subdivision in Bacoor, Cavite sometime December last year.
Last Jan. 22, Cariaga received the copies of the affidavit-complaint against him via LBC with a note which reads: “Tawagan mo ako para hindi ito mafile at tsaka adm (sic) case. Hindi rin efile (sic) sa Ombudsman office kasi binigay sa akin ito kaso mo," together with cellphone number 09087408157.
Cariaga immediately called the number and was able to talk with Alibio and set a meeting so the money could be handed over to the suspect.