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Acting Lanao del Sur Provincial Prosecutor Leo Dacera
on Monday asked Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 Judge Elmo
Alameda for the arrest of a Lanao town mayor and seven other
suspects who were earlier charged before the RTC for the murder of
an Army captain and his aide in Cagayan de Oro City two years ago.
Dacera sought the arrest of Kapai,
Lanao del Sur Mayor Aminola Calauto Manguron; Bokary Abantas; Ali
Ryan Basher; Supt. Gani Paramata Asira, former Kapai police chief;
PO2 Alykhan Zacaria; Bambang Maminta Mopa and SPO4 Benjamin Tamayo
for failing to attend their scheduled arraignment on Monday on the
charges of falsification of public documents and obstruction of
justice.
Manguron, Abantas, Basher, and
Mopa were charged by the Department of Justice with illegal
possession of firearms. Asira is currently the director of the
1501st Provincial Mobile Group based at Camp Amai Pacpac, Marawi
City.
Dacera, said the respondents made
it appear through the issuance of a fake memorandum of receipt for
the firearms that these were government property.
The Philippine National Police
(PNP) uncovered the scheme. Dacena also said that the PNP certified
that Manguron was not issued a permit to carry firearms outside of
his residence while the others, except for Asira, Tamayo and Zacaria,
are not registered firearm holders.
The prosecution filed an
obstruction of justice case after the respondents refused to turn
over the firearms, which Dacera said were instead turned over to the
custody of Zacaria and Manguron.
He said that Zacaria has now gone
on absence without official leave as attested by Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao Police Director Joel Goltiao.
The case was originally filed at
the sala of then Marawi City Judge Moslemen Macarambon Sr. where
he served as acting judge last year.
In the course of the trial,
however, Lanao del Sur provincial prosecutor Pacaambung Macabando
moved for a reinvestigation of the cases, a motion that Macarambon
readily granted.
Dacera and prosecutor Juan Pedro
Navera, who were assigned by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to
avoid a whitewash questioned Macabando’s resolution but Macarambon
dropped the cases.
Macarambon is now a commissioner
at the Commission on Elections.
The Philippine National Police
Intelligence Group, which acted as the main complainant, appealed
Macabando’s resolution to Gonzalez, and the latter subsequently
ordered the reinstatement of the charges against Mangurun and
company.
On September 5, the Supreme
Court’s second division approved the transfer of the trial venue
from Macarambon’s sala to Makati City.
--James Konstantin Galvez
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