Trader: CIDG knew of warrants

Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) have a copy since last year of the warrant of arrest against two women, one of whom they claimed they tried to rescue last week from kidnappers.

This was according to a businessman who was the private complainant against Marilyn Ong and Edna Alfuerto in a P5.5-million estafa case.

In an affidavit, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, Thomas Lim Sia (not Thomas Lim as earlier reported) said he first sought the assistance of the CIDG on February 2011 to have the two women arrested, more than a month after they were convicted by a Manila court.

“I went to the CIDG in Camp Crame sometime in the first week of February 2011 and furnished them the warrant of arrest duly signed by the judge to arrest the subjects, but to no avail as the pair remained free and seemingly had connections with CIDG,” Sia said in his sworn statement dated May 20.

The businessman executed the affidavit two days after the women were tracked down by members of the Quezon City Police District, an operation that led to a tense standoff between the QCPD and CIDG men.

The CIDG was then acting on a complaint that Ong had been taken by armed men demanding a P20-million ransom.

But it turned out that the supposed kidnappers were a QCPD team purportedly serving the 2011 warrant.

The May 18 standoff—described by one officer as a “near shoot-out” involving more than 70 police officers at a coffee shop in Teachers Village, Quezon City—has since driven a wedge between two units of the Philippine National Police.

On Wednesday, QCPD director Chief Supt. Mario de la Vega accused 15 CIDG men of intervening in a legitimate operation and assaulting his men. CIDG-National Capital Region chief Senior Supt. Joel Coronel shot back the next day, saying his men entered the picture because they were out on a rescue mission.

It was Alfuerto who alerted the CIDG about the alleged kidnapping, after Ong asked her through text messages to produce the ransom money and meet her and her captors at the coffee shop.

QCPD help sought

In his affidavit, Sia added that after giving a copy of the warrant to the CIDG, he then went to QCPD’s district intelligence division in April this year to also seek its assistance in carrying out the arrest.

He said he was then asked to produce a new copy of the warrant against the two women with proper authentication and validation, which he submitted to QCPD on May 7.

Also on Friday, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo directed the PNP’s Office of Internal Security led by Senior Supt. Wally Pornillosan to conduct an independent probe of the CIDG-QCPD dispute.

The investigation, Robredo said, would “determine the alleged lapses committed by both agents from the QCPD and PNP-CIDG and determine their liability in the incident.”

Robredo said the probe would find out, for example, “why the QCPD did not coordinate” with the local police in Muntinlupa City where Ong was supposedly served the warrant early on May 18, and why the “failure to bring Ong directly to Camp Karingal (the QCPD headquarters) for booking purposes.”

On the part of the CIDG-NCR, Robredo said, the probe would determine “why they fail(ed) to check that Edna Alfuerto, the walk-in complainant, is Ong’s coaccused and coconvict in same estafa case.”

Ong is also the subject of a criminal case in the United States involving a $80-million scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank. Records of the National Bureau of Investigation also showed that Ong and Alfuerto had up to 22 complaints filed against them at the agency and 16 cases pending in various courts in Metro Manila.

In the Inquirer interview on Wednesday, De la Vega claimed that his men made proper coordination with local authorities regarding the arrest.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Coronel maintained that it was only after the incident that his men learned of the criminal cases involving Ong and Alfuerto.

In a statement, Robredo said he learned about the incident as early as May 18, a few hours after the standoff, when the wife of one of the QCPD officers involved complained to him that her husband’s firearm had been seized by the CIDG and was yet to be returned.

“The (investigation) body is also directed to submit recommendations on corresponding disciplinary actions, if necessary, against any erring officer,” the secretary added.

“I have directed Senior Supt. Joel Coronel of the CIDG-National Capital Region and Chief Supt. Mario dela Vega of the QCPD to submit for investigation their men involved in the incident, including their reports and statements relative to it,” Robredo said.