Mandaluyong cops told to answer raps by Japanese trader

FOUR Mandaluyong City police officers were ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman to answer the complaint for illegal arrest and arbitrary detention filed by a Japanese businessman who cried harassment.

Businessman Shuichi Tajima, an electric tricycles (e-trikes) supplier who holds a permanent resident visa in the country, said he was arrested without a warrant on June 9 while he was at the office of his local business partners.

He was detained overnight at the police station and released upon orders of the prosecutor’s office.

The Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and other Law Enforcement Offices, headed by Cyril Ramos, found merit in Tajima’s complaint and directed the four policemen and at least four other individuals to answer the allegations.

Tajima filed the complaint against Insp. Jesus Breyner Mansibang, who heads the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Mandaluyong police station, PO3 Elmer Crispin Tatco, and PO1s Zedrik dela Cruz and Robert Ryan Noe.

“You are hereby directed to file within 10 days your counter-affidavit, and those of your witnesses if any, and such other controverting evidence, copy furnished to the complainant (Tajima),” read the Ombudsman order issued by director Dennis Garcia.

Senior assistant provincial prosecutor Leilani Rodriguez ordered the release of Tajima, who was arrested without any warrant and detained for allegedly using an alias, Kawauchi Shinsuke.

In a July 10 resolution, the prosecutor dismissed the case filed against Tajima by his business partner, Guevent Investments Development Corp., over his alleged use of a fictitious name.

The Japanese supplier also included Guevent president Ricardo Guevarra, chief finance officer Robert David Guevarra, security and services manager Rolly Masangkay, lawyer Marcus Valdez II, and two unidentified lawyers in his complaint in the Ombudsman.

Tajima, as representative of Ecos Environment Foundation Inc., signed a business deal with Guevent in 2013. Under their agreement, Ecos will manufacture and supply e-trikes while Guevent will purchase, sell and promote the vehicles.

Tajima said he signed the memorandum of agreement in good faith with Guevent under his other name “for security reasons but not to conceal a crime or to defraud anyone.”

He believed that his arrest by the Mandaluyong police was a ploy to take over his business.

He said his business partners, with the help of the policemen, “concocted a plan to take the business out of the foundation by setting him up or instigating him to commit the alleged crimes so that he could be locked up in jail preparatory to deportation.”

“Apparently Guevent had no intention of really pursuing the MOA as it was more interested in learning and later on grabbing the technology to have the business solely on its own,” he added.