Not guilty of graft, ex-top cop Purisima pleads

Dismissed police chief Alan Purisima                       RAFFY LERMA

Dismissed Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima and five other former top police officials have pleaded not guilty to the graft charges filed against them over an allegedly anomalous gun permits delivery deal from 2011 to 2014.

Purisima appeared before the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division on Monday, a month after he was hastily brought in after his arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by the police.

He posted P30,000 bail for his temporary liberty.

Others who pleaded not guilty were retired Police Director Gil Meneses, former Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) head Chief Supt. Napoleon Estilles, assistant FEO chief Senior Supt. Allan Parreño, division chief Senior Supt. Melchor Reyes and legal officer Senior Inspector Ford Tuazon.

Six other former police officials led by Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta and five officials of the courier agency Werfast Documentary Agency succeeded in postponing their arraignment by asking the antigraft court to review the charges against them.

Aside from Petrasanta, those who had their arraignment postponed were former Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, Supt. Lenbell Fabia, Chief Insp. Sonia Calixto, Chief Insp. Nelson Bautista and Chief Insp. Ricardo Zapata Jr. as well as Werfast incorporators Mario Juan, Enrique Valerio, Lorna Perena, Juliana Pasia and Salud Bautista.

No track record

The Ombudsman has charged Purisima, Petrasanta and several other officials of the FEO and Werfast with graft for awarding to Werfast an exclusive contract to deliver renewed firearm licenses to applicants.

The Sandiganbayan set the pretrial on Oct. 13 to finalize the list of witnesses and evidence, and tentatively set the trial to begin on Nov. 28.

According to the Ombudsman, Werfast had no track record as a courier company, lacked capital, and did not have the manpower and logistical capability to make deliveries around the country.

Werfast reportedly relied on another courier company, LBC, to fulfill its obligations.

“Evidence shows not only that Purisima… himself exerted pressure and coercion over his subordinates on behalf of Werfast,” Ombudsdman Conchita Carpio Morales said last year when she dismissed Purisima from the service along with the other implicated officials for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and grave abuse of authority.

The PNP terminated its contract with Werfast in March 2014 due to complaints filed by a private citizen, the Deputy Ombudsman for the military and other law enforcement agencies.

Bautista, one of the incorporators of Werfast, is among those being investigated for alleged money laundering as president of the money remittance firm, Philrem Services Corp. Philrem was used as a conduit in the illegal transfer of $81 million that hackers stole from the account of Bangladesh in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.