THE lawyer of Genard Abejo, the employee detailed at the Cagayan de Oro City Prosecutor’s Office (CPO) who was arrested last week for alleged extortion and bribery, denied on Tuesday, November 15, that his client implicated prosecutors in supposed case fixing at the fiscal’s office.
Lawyer Alejandro Jose Pallugna said the complainants were the ones claiming, not his client, that some prosecutors were also involved in “fixing” cases.
“What the complainants said was that they heard, from Abejo, some seven names of fiscals, but you should understand that the word ‘heard’ is equal to hearsay,” Pallugna said.
“In fact, Abejo never released any affidavit saying that some fiscals were involved in doing the act, thus there was no such declaration of such involvement of the fiscals, so we vehemently deny that there are fiscals involved, there was none, Abejo was acting on his own,” he added.
An inquest disposition released by the City Prosecutor’s Office narrated the complainants heard Abejo say: “Unsa na ni… Klaroha ninyo… Gakaulaw ko sa akong boss… Kay ako baya magtapala ani kung dili mo modayon… (What’s this… Make it clear… I’m ashamed of my boss… Because I will end up covering up the expenses if you won’t continue…)”
The complainants said Abejo made calls and exchange text messages with certain prosecutors, thus “making them believe that respondent (Abejo) is credible enough to be able to fix the case in their favor.”
With the prosecutors’ involvement of the controversy, the CPO and the Regional State Prosecutor's Office have initiated their own internal investigation to find truth in the accusations and hold the suspects liable.
“Abejo has no direct control or participation in any case pending in the prosecutor’s office,” he said.
Abejo posted bail worth P130,000 for his two cases, robbery extortion and violation of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, at the Regional Trial Court branch 40 with Executive Judge Marites Bernales, and was immediately released Tuesday afternoon.
The City Prosecutor’s Office also dropped the direct bribery charges against Abejo for lack of probable cause.
Abejo, 47 years old and a resident of Puntod village, was arrested by policemen on Friday, November 11, at a convenience store in Gusa village.
He works as an administrative aide IV of the CPO.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Deputy Regional Director Melgar Devaras had earlier said Abejo implicated three prosecutors who are allegedly involved in the same corrupt practice.
Abejo declined to name the three.
