Mikee Romero, a party-list congressman-in-waiting, is apparently using his powerful position to harass the Manila city prosecutor’s office where a nonbailable case has been filed against him.
Romero was not averse to saying that he was about to take “my seat as a member of Congress” in writing to Chief Prosecutor Edward Togonon to drop the case against him.
Romero is a nominee of 1-Pacman which placed No. 3 among the winning party-list groups in the May 9 elections.
The apparently brash Romero is a respondent in a case of qualified theft filed by Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI) owned by his father, Reghis Romero II, in the Manila city prosecutor’s Office.
The case stemmed from numerous checks he allegedly issued to the “National Food Authority and/or Felicia T. Aquino” on April 27, 2007, as an officer of HCPTI.
The issued checks, mostly in the amount of P200,000 each, totaled P3,409,844.10.
HCPTI claims it does not have any business dealings with the government-owned National Food Authority or NFA.
Felicia T. Aquino, who is listed as another recipient of the checks, is HCPTI cashier.
Qualified theft is a nonbailable offense if the amount involved is P500,000 or more.
In his letter to Togonon, the young Romero said he would not allow the Manila prosecutor “to put me in jail for a nonbailable crime that I am innocent of and, in effect, prevent me from taking my seat as a member of Congress.”
The incoming congressman has not taken his oath yet; wait till he becomes a full-fledged lawmaker.
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PO1 Arnel Morales of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) shot and killed Joey Reyes, a chicken vendor, who was drying laundry on a clothes line, mistaking him for the person who snatched a cell phone earlier.
The incident happened on May 18, but criminal and administrative cases against Morales were filed only on June 7 after the victim’s family sought the help of my public service program, “Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo.”
Before “Isumbong” intervened, the QCPD didn’t file any criminal or administrative case against Morales and his companions.
Morales and his fellow policemen—PO1 Maralyn Avila, PO3 Dominic Chan and SPO2 Joel Durig—were answering a complaint from a woman who sought help after her cell phone was snatched.
Morales saw Reyes on the rooftop of the latter’s house drying clothes.
Thinking that Reyes was the thief, Morales fired at the hapless man.
Reyes was hit in the buttock, the bullet traveling upward into his pancreas; he died later at V. Luna Medical Center.
As the vendor fell, PO1 Avila shouted, “P—–, bulilyaso; hindi yan ang snatcher (Son of a —, we made a mistake; that’s not the snatcher).”
However, in their report on the incident, all the policemen said Reyes fought back while being arrested, forcing one of them, Morales, to shoot him.
The snatching suspect, Pudini Bulatao, was later arrested by barangay tanod (village watchmen) and turned over to the QCPD Station 8, where the cops belong.
Barangay officials went to the station not only to turn over Bulatao but also to testify that Reyes was mistaken for the suspected snatcher.
Clearly, the QCPD was covering up for Morales and his companions.