NBI, Interpol help sought in arrest of tax credit scam suspects

MANILA, Philippines -  Prosecutors of the Office of the Ombudsman are now planning to ask for the National Bureau of Investigation’s help in having former Finance Undersecretary Antonio Belicena and six other individuals who are facing a plunder case before the Sandiganbayan.

Government lawyers led by Prosecution Bureau VI director Diosdado V. Calonge of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) said the International Police (Interpol) will also be tapped since the businessman tagged as the brains behind the P73.76-million tax credit scan of the mid-1990s flew to China days before arrest warrants were issued against him by the anti-graft court.

He stressed that despite the numerous motions filed by the respondents in the case, the arrest orders issued by the Sandiganbayan First Division were never recalled or suspended.

In effect, Calonge said the warrants of arrest against  Belicena; Grace, Gloria, and Faustino Chingkoe; Uldarino Andutan Jr.; Asuncion Magdaet; Rowena P. Malonzo; and Aranas Bautista, stands and should be implemented.

 “What we can do is coordinate with the police authorities. We can also ask alias warrants of arrest to be furnished the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI),” he told The Star.

Calonge issued the statement after the Sandiganbayan, in a consolidated resolution, simultaneously junked 11 different motions filed by the respondents which generally sought for the dismissal of the plunder case.

The First Division, chaired by Associate Justice Norberto Y. Geraldez, upheld its earlier decision to issue warrants of arrest against all the accused after finding probable cause to indict them.

The Sandiganbayan denied all 11 pleadings anchored on varying arguments filed by the respondents through their lawyers for different reasons.