Reconsider aid cut, Dusaban appeals to Tupas
Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor Bernabe Dusaban fears that his office may be paralyzed following the decision of the Iloilo Provincial Government to discontinue extending financial assistance.
Dusaban said that he will write Governor Niel Tupas back to ask the latter to reconsider the decision. “It will paralyze our operations. The withdrawal (of support) will affect the anti-criminality drive of the Governor,” Dusaban said, adding that the Capitol’s decision will “greatly affect” their office.
Although the financial assistance they receive does not even amount to 1% of the Capitol’s total annual budget, it is a big help to their office, Dusaban said.
He explained that the financial assistance given them by the Capitol is used to purchase office supplies and spent for official out-of-town travels by his assistant prosecutors and other employees.
“How then are we going to file cases if we have no paper on write on, or our printers have no ink?” Dusaban wondered.
In a letter to Dusaban dated January 9, 2009, Provincial Administrator Manuel Mejorada said that they are suspending the P1.7-million annual financial assistance to the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor following ‘questionable dismissal’ of drug cases and on allegations that several fiscals were protecting drug personalities in the province.
In the said letter, Mejorada echoed the frustration expressed by the Iloilo Provincial Police Office and the various chiefs of police over the “questionable dismissal of certain cases against apprehended pusher suspects.”
The administrator highlighted the case against O’Henry Caspillo and Rolly Tiope.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Philippine National Police conducted a raid on a drug den allegedly run by Caspillo in June 2008, and recovered several sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride, firearms, and cash. Five cases were filed against Caspillo, four of which were non-bailable. According to Mejorada, Dusaban dismissed the four non-bailable cases and instead filed the fifth charge, which allowed Caspillo to post bail.
Authorities also recovered from the wallet of Caspillo a piece of paper torn from a calendar on which was written the names of two provincial prosecutors and their mobile phone numbers.
“This is a matter of grave concern because the discovery about the names of these prosecutors and their cell phone numbers raises the possibility of protection being given him (Caspillo),” Mejorada said in his letter. He, however, refused to name the two prosecutors.
Tiope, on the other hand, was caught possessing illegal drugs at a police checkpoint. Police charged him for transporting illegal drugs, a non-bailable offense. However, the case did not even touched first base as Dusaban dismissed it.
“We are afraid that the campaign against illegal drugs will get nowhere because of this seeming predisposition of the Provincial Prosecutors Office to dismiss illegal drug cases,” Mejorada said.
Cases filed by the police for illegal fishing and illegal gambling were also treated in the same way as drugs cases, Mejorada added. Dusaban denied this.
From 2003 to December 2008, Dusaban cited, there were 209 drug cases filed before his office. Of these, 193 were filed, and only 23 were dismissed. He also called on Mejorada to name the two prosecutors whose names and mobile phone numbers were found in the possession of a drug suspect.
“That’s so unfair, they should have divulged the names, and every allegation they make should be under oath,” he said.