BAGUIO PROSECUTION OFFICE’S INVESTIGATION

THE Office of the City Prosecutor of Baguio City has approved for filing the case by the Prosecutor’s Office in Dagupan City, of direct bribery after finding probable cause to indict the respondents in the case filed by Small Scale Fish Consignment and Retailers at Riverside against the head of the Dagupan City Market Marshal and two of his personnel.

The Baguio City Prosecutor Office had to re-investigate the complaint filed by the vendors represented by Marietta Barrientos and Diana Oxino as the Dagupan City Prosecutor Office headed by City Prosecutor Victoria Cabrera inhibited on hearing the complaint as Cabrera is reportedly related to one of the respondents.

The eight-page resolution issued last May 5 was furnished Genevieve Ayochok, associate prosecutor and Acting City Prosecutor of Dagupan City  and Atty. Mel Ramos, counsel for respondents Michael Hernando, Marvin  Barrozo and Marie Lomibao.

The same complaint earlier filed by the Dagupan City Prosecutor’s Office, stemmed from the alleged collection of monthly protection money of P25,000 from the vendors by Barrozo who signed in a notebook purportedly as evidence of his receipt of the money and afterwards remit the same to Hernando. In their  affidavits, the complainants  alleged that they religiously and continuously paid Hernando the amount from June 2020 to August 2021.

Lomibao, a known runner of respondent Hernando, was accused of telling the vendors that Hernando was in an urgent need of P100,000 and wanted the vendors to provide the amount.

Barrientos and Oxino were forced to borrow P100,000 from their fellow vendor Leonila Collado and Hernando promised to pay the amount on a later date.

In their counter-affidavits, Hernando, Barrozo and Lomibao denied the allegations of the complainants, calling these as mere fabrications. They even alleged that the Small Scale Fish Consignment at Riverside is non-existent.

In its resolution, the Baguio Prosecutors Office ruled that all the elements of direct bribery were present, pointing out that Hernando was a public officer at that time, being a Technical Consultant under the Office of  the Mayor directly supervising the operation of the anti-hawking task force of the city government.

Moreover, Hernando accepted P25,000 monthly from June 2020 to July 2021 in consideration of Hernando’s assurance that market vendors will not be apprehended for selling at the Magsaysay Fish Market where they were forbidden to sell.

All these, according to the Prosecutor, relate to Hernando’s function as Technical Consultant.

At the same time, the Prosecutor said Barrozo’s acts of collecting the monthly “protection money” for Hernando, “make him as a co-conspirator on this case”.

In the case of Lomibao, her act of telling the vendors that Hernando was in urgent need of P100,000 and wanted the vendors to immediately give him the amount “make her a co-conspirator also.”

Meanwhile, the prosecution dismissed the countercharge of respondents Barrozo against the complainants for allegedly making false statement and for allegedly using false documents and for falsifying his signature.

Also dismissed was the contention of Barrientos and Oxino that respondents be made liable for extortion or simple robbery under Articles 293 and 294(5) of the Revised Penal Code. (Leonardo Micua)

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