Letter to the editor - To set the record straight

News item published Thursday, 14 January 2010, Vol. 44 No. 178, page 7, as reported by Fred P. Languido/LPM (Immigration officers indicted for bribery).

This letter is written in behalf of our client, Maria Donna Bella Deriada, a former employee of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID), who was formerly assigned to the Student Desk Section of the Bureau of Immigration, Mandaue City, and was then responsible for the processing of Special Students Permits (SSP) and Special Working Permits (SWP) for foreign nationals residing in the province of Cebu and other provinces of District VII.

To set the record straight – although the Office of the Ombudsman- Visayas, penned a “Resolution” recommending the filing of criminal charges against our client and three of her co-accused, for direct bribery and violation of section 3 (b) of Republic Act 3019, there is no truth to some items published in the news as reported by your reporter, Fred P. Languido.

1. In your newspaper, our client, was one of the agents arrested by the NBI in the entrapment operations conducted on 22 October 2007.

“Montor and the three confidential agents were arrested by the National Bureau of investigation on October 22, 2007 during an entrapment operation for allegedly demanding P500,000 from a Korean businessman Lee Dong Bum.”

2. The actual truth and legal fact is that our client was not even close to the place where the entrapment operation was conducted. She therefore, was never arrested by the NBI during the entrapment operation. If your reporter was careful enough to read the facts and report what is actually in the records, this letter would not have been necessary.

3. Again, as written in the same newspaper column, about our client being invited:

“Deriada, Gumba and Impas all denied the charges, claiming that they were just invited by Montor. According to them, they did not have any knowledge about the transaction.”

4. She was never invited by Immigration Officer Dilausan Sarip Montor to accompany him as falsely reported. Immigrations Officer Montor was with two agents namely: Daniel Gumba and Mabert Impas, both of whom were arrested with him when the entrapment operation was conducted. 

She was implicated in the case for having been in contact with Mr. Lee in connection with some staff of Narra Travel who purportedly did not have working visas (refer to Complaint Affidavit) and being purportedly responsible for setting up the meeting.

Our client who voluntarily resigned from the service and is determined to prove her innocence in court, is being put to shame again unnecessarily, as a result of the careless reporting of Mr. Fred P. Languido. It is tragic enough for her to have resigned from a job she truly loved doing, and to be accused of a crime she did not commit. That she is committed to prove her innocence and that what she did was to do her assigned job. The irresponsible printing of unverified information is revolting and has unnecessarily caused untold emotional strain.

This therefore, is to DEMAND from your reporter, Mr. Fred P. Languido, for a PUBLISHED APOLOGY concerning the incorrect report concerning our client being arrested in the entrapment operation of 22 October 2007, conducted by the NBI, which resulted in the arrested of an Immigration Officer and two confidential agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation.

We hope you will give this letter your immediate and favorable consideration to avoid expensive and embarrassing litigation to protect our client’s rights and interests.

DIORES LAW OFFICES

Attorneys for Maria Donna Bella Deriada

By: (Sgd.) Grace Diores-Tudtud

(We apologize to Maria Donna Bella Deriada for whatever harm and inconvenience the aforementioned report of our reporter may have caused. It is never our intention to do so to anyone. – THE FREEMAN)