REGIONAL State Prosecutor Jaime Umpa said results of the fact-finding investigation in the alleged case fixing inside the City Prosecutor's Office (CPO) involving this Cagayan de Oro City’s prosecutors will be out this week.
Umpa issued the statement, even as he said that the entrapment operation that targeted former CPO aide Genard Abejo last November was legal.
He was reacting to Abejo's statements accusing law enforcement authorities and fiscals of violating his privacy.
Abejo also filed a petition for habeas data against Umpa, CPO officer-in-charge Merlynn Uy, and other police officials involved in the operation.
"Legal man kadtong among gibuhat. Gi-aresto namo siya ug gikuha namo ang cellphones para ebidensya (What we did was legal. We arrested him and took his cell phone as evidence)," Umpa said.
Umpa said investigation is still ongoing, and they are still in the process of accepting documents, including the comments of the alleged prosecutors involved in the anomaly.
"Kamulo pa kita ug dawat sa mga dokumento, wala nako gipadali-dali ang investigation, hatagan nato ni ug time, kay para dili ma-compromise ang clarity niana, para ma-maintain ang pagka-concise, integrity of the intelligence. Sa mga na-involve pud na mga prosecutors, naa nay ni-submit ug ilang reply, naay wala, so gipang-consider kini tanan sa fact-finding (We are still accepting the documents, I don't want to rush the investigation, we’ll give it time so the clarity won’t be compromised, also to maintain its conciseness and integrity of the intelligence)," Umpa added.
"Pero this week makalaum ta nga naa nay resulta kay nag-overtime ang atong mga prosecutors niini (But this week, we can hope that there’s a result because the prosecutors worked overtime for this)," he said.
The prosecutor noted that the result of the investigation would guide the people and help those who were also victimized by the scam to come forward.
Umpa also said that there are already persons who came forward to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), willing to file a complaint against the prosecutors.
"Mas maayo ni kay para makita nato unsa na kadugay ug kadako ilang operations diha (It’s better so we can see how long and big their operation there)," Umpa added.
CIDG chief Senior Superintendent Melgar Devaras confirmed that a person came to their office to provide additional information to the case.
"Two weeks ago, naay ning-anhi pero naka-file na siya ng case (someone came to file a case) against city prosecutor Macauyag before already, so additional information lang yung na-provide din niya (he only provided additional information)," Umpa said, noting however that they welcome more complainants.
Umpa also said that their arrest against Abejo was legal.
"We maintain the legality of arrest, baka wrong lang yung pagkaintindi niya sa legality (maybe he understood legality the wrong way), that was definitely a lawful arrest," Umpa added.
