Arrest warrant sought against Zambales mayor

OLONGAPO CITY—A Zambales prosecutor has asked the regional trial court to issue an arrest warrant against San Marcelino Mayor Jose Rodriguez due to his non-appearance in hearings and his insistence to travel abroad despite a court-issued travel ban.

Rodriguez is facing child abuse and trafficking charges in connection with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl last year.

In a motion filed before Judge Norman Pamintuan on May 27, Joy Bayona, associate provincial prosecutor, said they feared that Rodriguez may have either left the country or is in hiding.

“Considering that [Rodriguez] did not appear during [a May 26] hearing despite being required by the honorable court to do so, there is, in fact, a reasonable concern that he is no longer in the country and/or has gone into hiding,” she said.

Bayona asked the court to order the cancellation and forfeiture of the cash bonds posted by Rodriguez and to issue a warrant for his arrest.

In an order on May 18, Pamintuan said an invitation to Rodriguez as guest and speaker in a May 28 dinner and dance event in Lemon Grove, California, was “sufficient to establish the probability that [Rodriguez] will leave the country.”

Pamintuan also ordered that a copy of the travel ban he issued be sent to the Bureau of Immigration.

But Maria Rosario Cesa, Rodriguez’s lawyer, filed an urgent motion asking the court to allow Rodriguez to travel “for a speaking engagement before his constituents who are now residing abroad.”

“[Rodriguez] is requesting that he be permitted to an 11-day stay in the United States,” the motion said.

The court denied Rodriguez’s motion.

Documents showed that Rodriguez had secured an electronic ticket from Philippine Airlines for a flight on May 25. He also secured on May 10 a permission to travel from Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., covering a 15-day period, and had filed for a vacation leave.

Asked whether Rodriguez has left the country, Cesa, on Monday, said: “The mayor is in the Philippines. He is doing his job as the mayor of San Marcelino.”

Sources at the San Marcelino town hall said they saw Rodriguez in the town on Friday. But an official said the mayor did not attend the flag ceremony at the town hall on Monday.

Reports said it was Rodriguez’s son, lawyer Von Rodriguez, who represented the mayor in the event in the US.

Cesa did not reply to the Inquirer’s follow-up questions on the mayor’s whereabouts. But in an earlier interview, she said it was impossible for Rodriguez to be present in every hearing because as an elected official, he needs to attend to his responsibilities in running the affairs of his town.

Rodriguez’s absence from the May 26 hearing prompted the prosecution to seek his arrest.

“It is most respectfully manifested that such non-appearance of the accused constitutes blatant disregard, unjustifiable disobedience and clear defiance of the explicit directive twice given by the honorable court,” Bayona said.

She said a few days after the court issued a hold departure order, Rodriguez filed an “urgent motion to allow work-related international travel,” which “confirms the very grounds raised by the prosecution … that the accused was indeed intending to put himself beyond the jurisdiction of the honorable court.”

She said Rodriguez “had not been candid and truthful” to the court because his lawyer had argued “that a mere invitation does not necessarily mean that [Rodriguez] had already accepted the invitation and had intentions to attend the overseas affair.”

Rodriguez’s actions, Bayona said, showed “bad faith.”

In January, Rodriguez was arraigned in the sala of Judge Richard Paradeza and pleaded innocent to the charge of violation of the Anti-Child Abuse Act (Republic Act No. 7610).

Bayona filed an amended charge against Rodriguez after Paradeza dismissed the trafficking charges under Section 4 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 (RA 9208).

In her amended charge, Bayona cited Section 11 of RA 9208 for “use of trafficked persons.”

Rodriguez had posted bail. In an earlier statement, he denied the charges and said the case filed by the girl and her mother was meant to destroy his reputation and cause “political turmoil” in the town.

Rodriguez said he was on his way to Manila on September 12 last year, the day he supposedly raped the girl.

Bayona also sued Jonie Ponce, also known as “Jodie,” for bringing the girl to the mayor’s rest house in San Marcelino where the alleged rape took place. Ponce is facing charges of violating RA 9208 and RA 7610. Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Northern Luzon