Castro says colleague got ‘axe to grind’

CEBU, Philippines - Assistant Cebu City Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro said the complaint she is facing has no base and is just meant to get back at her.

“The complaint is meant solely to persecute this lowly public servant because foremost, the complainant has an axe to grind against herein respondent,” she said in a counter-affidavit.

The statement is in response to complaints for grave misconduct and a violation of Republic Act 6713 filed by her co-worker, Assistant City Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas.

Castro said that the complaints are only intended to harass and “persecute” her, and requested that they be dismissed for lack of merit

In 2012, Rabillas, through lawyer Vicente Fernandez II, filed the complaints before the Office of the Regional State Prosecutor, particularly at the Internal Affairs Unit.

Rabillas alleged that while Castro was investigating the complaint of Ricardo Reluya against San Fernando, Cebu Mayor Antonio Canoy and several others, Castro gave unwarranted benefit to Reluya, who was represented by lawyer Oliveros Kintanar. Rabillas claimed Kintanar was a close friend of Castro.

Rabilla said that as reviewing officer, she was tasked to review resolutions made by Castro. She said that after her evaluation, she ruled to reverse Castro’s ruling on Reluya’s complaint, with her decision approved by the chief prosecutor of the City Prosecutor’s Office.

Reluya filed a motion for reconsideration and petitioned for Rabillas’ inhibition, which she granted.

 While the motion was pending for resolution, Reluya filed criminal and administrative complaints against her before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for graft and corruption and grave misconduct over her ruling.

Rabillas then filed her comment on the said complaint.

She said that Castro allegedly executed an affidavit of witness against her attached to Reluya’s counter-affidavit for the graft and corruption and grave misconduct complaints.

“The actuation of Castro in executing an affidavit in favor of a litigant, whom she had favored in her resolution and is represented by a lawyer who had represented her in her personal cases, is a gross violation of the Code of Conduct for Prosecutors,” Rabillas complained before the Internal Affairs Unit.

Castro, however, denied the allegations.

She said Rabillas’ complaint never mentioned there was “the wastage of public funds and revenues” on her part to merit the complaints she is facing.

She also took exception to Rabillas’ words that Kintanar was her “close personal friend”, as it can be given a different interpretation that is not supported by evidence.

Castro said she knew Kintanar because he was once the Cebu City prosecutor.

She said she resolved Reluya’s complaints against Canoy based on the merits of the case and that Rabillas lied when Rabillas said she reversed Castro’s ruling on the said complaints.

Castro said she was the one who re-investigated the complaints and came up with another resolution. Rabillas, she said, did not reverse her original findings and even signed for approval the resolution she made.

“Where is then that resolution re: Reluya vs. Canoy et al, which complainant claimed to have reviewed, studied and evaluated seriously and afterwards decided to reverse my findings? Well, complainant is not being truthful here,” Casta said.

“Complainant is withholding that very evidence because it is incriminating. Instead she presented to this honorable office another resolution of mine of the same case but a resolution I made after reinvestigation,” she added.   (FREEMAN)