Gonzalez on trial

EDITORIAL

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01/09/2009

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez is coming out as the biggest loser in the controversy involving the so-called “Alabang Boys” or the three well-off suspected drug traffickers who have the benefit of a factory of strings to pull.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested Richard Brodett and Jorge Joseph in Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City, along with Joseph Tecson at the Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City last Sept. 20. Seized from them were ecstasy tablets, cocaine and marijuana.

Bribe offers followed that, in one account, reached P50 million to PDEA agents for their release. After such offers were turned down, state prosecutors subsequently recommended the dismissal of the charges and signed release orders for the three.

The DoJ then dismissed the drug charges against the suspects last Dec. 2 for “lack of probable cause.”

That would have been the end of the story had it not been for PDEA Director Gen. Dionisio Santiago’s persistence to ask the questions that needed to be asked.

The other day Santiago, in the House of Representatives hearing on the case, said his agents received text messages from Richard Brodett’s mother asking why Santiago had not released the three despite his being already paid.

Santiago also previously made mention the message about receiving bribe money from the party of the three suspects.

“The one who sent it was very definite that I received cash. The only question is where the money went. It means that there was an exchange of cash,” Santiago said.

Where indeed did the bribe money go, whether it is P3 million, P20 million or P50 million? If the principles of cause and effect would be used on the question, definitely the claims laid out at the moment tended to show that the PDEA is zealous about convicting the three, while the DoJ seems to be in a confused state and government prosecutors appear to be throwing all the roadblocks against having the case elevated to the courts.

Also, there was the suspects’ lawyer Felisberto Verano’s temerity to draft the release order for the signing of Gonzalez in a DoJ letterhead, and the “unusual interest” shown by Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor to expedite the release of the three.

Gonzalez’s insistence that he had refused to sign the release order still begged the question of what gave Verano the extreme confidence to draft a release order, which is exceptional for any ordinary lawyer anywhere in the world to do.

Also sticking out like a sore thumb against Gonzalez was his meeting with parents of the drug suspects and Verano last Dec. 23 which was almost the same time that Blancaflor called PDEA about releasing the three suspects.

During the other day’s hearing, an uncomfortable Gonzalez cut off Verano several times when he was testifying on the assurances from Gonzalez to study the case.

“Studying it gave me hope that he would finally release them,” Verano averred.

Gonzalez suddenly spoke up at that point denying that he gave any such assurance to Verano. He claimed that which he said was “I cannot release them because I have not yet studied it.”

Still the fact remains that state prosecutors had already signed a resolution dismissing the case and the release of the three.

What Gonzalez is saying now is that the resolution remains without force because of the automatic review provisions on smuggling and drugs cases.

Gonzalez said that everybody in his department, including the prosecutors knew that he had issued a memorandum on such procedures.

That returns the question on Blancaflor who seemed cocksure about the three being released before last Christmas using the resolution, and the DoJ already dismissing the case.

The Gonzalez runaround notwithstanding, it appeared that the smooth release of the three traffickers was messed up after the PDEA started to raise a howl and the newspapers picked it up.

Gonzalez even if he comes out clean from the Alabang Boys mess, has proven himself to be very untenable as Justice Secretary. The PDEA’s perplexing position of running after drug traffickers and finding themselves at the losing end whenever most of the cases are sent to the DoJ also shows the confused role of not only Gonzalez’s agency but the whole of Gloria’s government in the dispensation of justice.

Santiago and his mostly Marine recruits now leading the affairs in PDEA are now asking the same question that rebel soldiers have already posed in the past.

What kind of government do we have under Gloria?

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