City prosecutor fined 6 month's worth of salary for neglect of duty

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The Ombudsman ordered a retired city prosecutor to return to government six months worth of his salary as penalty for violating basic litigation procedures. 

The Ombudsman’s ruling, docketed as OMB-M-A-11-077-C and signed by Conchita Carpio Morales on July 21, 2014, explicitly stated that Cotabato City Prosecutor Wilfred Buyco was censured for having tagged without due process, in an amended charge sheet, former Cotabato City Vice-Mayor Muslimin Sema as a suspect in the July 8, 2011 kidnapping of businessman Eulogio Lim Yu.

The ruling said Buyco, who has retired from government service on March 24, 2014, is meted with a fine equivalent to six months of his salary, while still a city prosecutor, for neglect of duty. 

The Ombudsman found out that Buyco had named Sema, then a vice-mayor, as among the suspects in the kidnapping of Yu without preliminary investigation and any counter-affidavit from the latter.

The Star tried but failed to reach Buyco for comment.

Sema on Friday told the Brigada News FM Radio here via mobile phone that someone could have influenced Buyco to implicate him in Yu's abduction. He did not elaborate, however. 

The Ombudsman said Buyco did not even furnish Sema a copy of his written motion for the court to include the former vice-mayor, through an amended charge sheet, as one of the kidnapping suspects. 

The offices of Buyco and Sema then are both inside one government building only, along the S.K. Pendatun Avenue at the city's main commercial hub.

The court eventually denied Buyco’s motion to include Sema as respondent to the kidnapping case on Feb. 10, 2011, according to the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman document detailing Buyco's culpability which the The Star obtained was certified as a true copy from the original by William Nonsol, administrative officer V.

“While respondent, as prosecutor, has the discretion to include in the information a person against whom he believes is probably guilty of the crime charged, such discretion must be based on evidence,” stated the Ombudsman’s ruling.

The Ombudsman’s decision was also signed by Maricel Marcial Oquendo, graft investigation and prosecution officer V.