DOJ aide in extort case has b-day request

Will the court please not hold a hearing on the birthday of the accused?

No way. That’s also the birthday of the judge’s husband, but she’s definitely reporting for work.

This unusual exchange marked the otherwise tense proceedings at the Manila Regional Trial Court on Wednesday, when the chief of staff of a ranking Department of Justice official pleaded not guilty to charges that she accepted bribe money from a former beauty queen last month.

Mutya Santiago Tobes maintained her innocence despite being caught in an entrapment operation on Aug. 31 inside the office of her boss, Deputy State Prosecutor Severino Gana.

Tobes allegedly took an envelope containing P150,000 in cash from Nuriza Abeja Jr. purportedly in exchange for the speedy release of a decision being reviewed by Gana which affirmed the dismissal of the adultery case filed against Abeja by her former husband.

Tobes showed up in court accompanied by family members and some supporters from the DOJ, and found herself just a seat away from her accuser.

At one point, her husband stood up and was allowed to address the court, asking Branch 54 Judge Ma. Paz Reyes-Yson to reset the date of the pretrial conference on Oct. 22 since it would fall on Tobes’s birthday.

The judge replied: ‘’It’s also the birthday of my husband on that day, but I will be working on a trial.”

Following her arrest by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, Tobes was suspended for 90 days by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima after the NBI charged her with robbery and extortion.

She was later released on a P100,000 bail.