The Department of Justice has dismissed the criminal complaints against airport employees and aviation police personnel for their alleged role in the “laglag-tanim-bala” (bullet-planting) scam at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
In a resolution, the DoJ through Associate Prosecution Attorney Honey Rose Delgado ruled that there is no probable cause to warrant the filing of the complaints before the court against Maria Elma Cena and Marvin Garcia of the Office of Transportation Security and Inspector Adriano Junio, SPO4 Ramon Bernardo and SPO2s Romy Navarro and Rolando Clarin of the Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group.
The investigating prosecutor said even if based on the footage taken by closed-circuit television cameras, respondents Cena and Garcia have committed some irregularities in the standard operating procedures or SOP, the prosecution failed to adduce or present evidence showing any “direct or covert act of placing, inserting, or attaching the ammunition for 22 caliber pistol” recovered inside the luggage of complainant, Lane Michael White.
The National Bureau of Investigation earlier filed a complaint against Cena and Garcia for violation of Article 5, Section 3 (B) (Liability for Planting Evidence) of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunitions Regulation Act.
On the other hand, the police officers were charged with violation of Article 293 (robbery and extortion) of the Revised Penal Code, violation of Republic Act 7438 (An Act Defining Certain Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or under Custodial Investigation and Duties of the Arresting, Detaining or Investigating Officers) and Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Apart from White, the other complainant is his stepmother, Eloisa Zolita.
The prosecutor also stressed that there was no evidence nor even intimation showing that the two solicited money from White as they immediately turned him over to the custody of Clarin after the ammunition was discovered.
The DoJ noted that while it believed White’s explanation that the ammunition found in his luggage was not his and he has no knowledge about it, there is no showing that it was Cena and Garcia who placed the ammunition inside the luggage.
Besides, the ammunition may have been placed or inserted in the complainant’s luggage between the time they had overnight stay at the Executive Plaza Hotel after their flight to Palawan has been delayed since his luggage was left with the hotel’s valet.
As to the liability of the PNP personnel, the DoJ said there “was also no sufficient proof” to warrant their indictment or establish probable cause as it agreed with Clarin’s explanation that he had no intention of asking or extorting money from the complainant.
In his counter-affidavit, Clarin said he only showed a copy of RA 8249, particularly about the fine for those charged with illegal possession of ammunition to the complainant since he has difficulty in expressing himself in English.
As to the utterance of respondent Junio about the P80,000 and P30,000 respectively, the resolution said he could have only been referring to the bail for illegal possession of ammunition and the fine imposed.
As to the complaint for RA 3019, the DoJ said the police personnel did not violate the law since the investigation, arrest and detention that they conducted on the complainant did not fall under the definition of a contract.
The 20-year-old White was arrested on Sept. 17, 2015 and charged with possession of a 22-caliber bullet, which was supposedly detected when his baggage went through the X-ray scanner at the Naia.
White said his refusal to cough up P30,000 allegedly demanded by OTS personnel in exchange for his release led to his detention for six days at the PNP-Avsegroup detention cell and the filing of charges against him for violation of RA 10591 before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court.
He gained temporary liberty after Pasay City Branch 119 Judge Pedro Gutierrez allowed him to post a P40,000 bail.
White said he and his parents were in the country to look for a lot in Palawan where they could help build a church for their congregation but their flight to the said province was canceled, forcing them to book another flight at Naia’s Terminal 4 where the bullet was allegedly found on his luggage.
Last April, DoJ Secretary Emmanuel Caparas said the incidents of the alleged scam at the Naia could be a ploy by some groups out to discredit the Aquino administration in the May 9 elections.