Stupid, stupid reason

The Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office wasted all the efforts of the police in arresting and filing a case against a Chinese man who was caught with a cache of weapons and grenades on Dec. 26, 2013.

Chief Supt. Jose Erwin Villacorte of the Southern Police District has all the right to get mad at Assistant Prosecutor Josefina Muego.

Villacorte described Muego’s decision as “outrageous.”

Muego ordered the release “for further investigation” of suspect Jerry Sy who had been charged with illegal possession of firearms, gun silencers and explosives.

This, despite being informed by the police that the Manila address that Sy gave was fictitious, and that he could be an undocumented alien.

Sy was arrested after he was turned over by security guards of Resorts World Manila who caught him in a scuffle with Joseph Ang, a casino financier.

Sy dropped two pistol magazines while being chased by the guards.

When the police searched Sy’s car after he was turned over by the security guards, they found a cache of guns and grenades inside the back compartment.

Do you know the reason cited by Muego in ordering Sy’s release?

The prosecutor said the police officers who arrested Sy did not have “proper determination of the respondent’s capacity to own or possess it.”

“In fact, there is no certification from the proper government agency that Jerry Sy is not licensed to own or possess any firearm or ammunition,” Muego pointed out.

What a stupid, stupid reason!

All Muego could have done was call Camp Crame’s firearms and explosives office to verify whether Sy was a licensed gun holder.

Besides, no civilian—much more an alien—is ever allowed to possess a grenade.

* * *

There were probably hundreds of thousands, nay a million, reasons for the release of Sy.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima would do well to investigate those hundreds of thousands or a million reasons.

You see, among the most corrupt prosecutors in the country are in Pasay City.

I’m not saying Muego is corrupt as she was probably influenced—napakiusapan in Tagalog—by one of her corrupt peers to release Sy.

A Pasay City Hall insider once told me a city prosecutor is always seen gambling at casinos and losing hundreds of thousands of pesos.

* * *

What has happened to the kidnapping case filed against several agents and officials of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) involving Norio Ohara, a Japanese woman?

And what has also happened to the frustrated murder charges filed against several persons in connection with the ambush of NBI Deputy Director Rey Esmeralda?

This columnist uncovered more than two years ago the kidnapping of Ohara by some NBI insiders who thought it was Esmeralda who tipped me off.

In effect, the discovery of Ohara’s kidnapping and Esmeralda’s ambush several months later were related.

Why are the two cases—Ohara’s kidnapping and Esmeralda’s ambush—moving at a snail’s pace?

Are political and religious considerations involved in the delay?

* * *

The great mimic, Willie Nepomuceno, was serious when he asked, “What’s happening to this country?” after his grandson survived a shooting spree by unknown men in Marikina City.

Nepomuceno was quoting former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez who survived an ambush in the early 1980s.

Yes, what’s really happening to this country when tandem-riding gunmen shoot down citizens and don’t get caught?