Esdrelon and Berger strike back Police, immigration officers face string of cases

CEBU, Philippines - “I will not forgive and forget.”

This was according to Sven Erik Berger, the Norwegian national whom authorities earlier held for the kidnap-slay of Ellah Joy Pique.

Berger, in visiting the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office yesterday, told reporters he could never forgive Senior Superintendent Erson Digal and others who implicated him and his Cebuana girlfriend Karen Esdrelon in the case for kidnapping with homicide.

Berger, an engineer and Esdrelon, a registered nurse, filed a string of cases against four policemen and employees of Bureau of Immigration (BI) before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.

Three months after the complaint against them was dismissed, Berger and Esdrelon, through lawyers Gil Tanyag and Glenn Villariza, filed separate criminal and administrative complaints against BI’s Arthur Omega, former Cebu Provincial Police Office director Senior Supt. Digal, police officers Rubin Cuizon and Lamberto Hibaya and Police Chief Inspector Donalita Baya Sotto of the Philippine Center Aviation Security (PCAS) of the Mactan International Airport.

Omega faces charges for grave coercion, libel, grave abuse of authority grave misconduct, gross negligence, dereliction of duty and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.

Berger and Esdrelon each asked Omega P50 million in damages. The two also asked that he be dismissed from service with perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

Digal has to parry charges of grave coercion, arbitrary detention, serious illegal detention, illegal arrest, four counts of libel, perjury, malicious prosecution, grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, gross negligence, dereliction of duty and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.

The complainants each asked Digal for P50 million damages, as well as his dismissal from service and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

For Cuizon, charges were filed for grave coercion, grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, gross negligence, dereliction of duty and violation of the code of conduct for public officials. Hibaya, meanwhile, faces similar charges plus arbitrary detention, illegal arrest, serious illegal detention, libel and perjury. Eight charges were also filed against Sotto.

Berger and Esdrelon likewise asked P10 million from them and their dismissal from service.

In their joint-complaint, Berger and Esdrelon narrated how they were prevented from boarding a flight to Hongkong on February 12, 2011 by Omega, who did not have any warrant of arrest or hold departure order.

They said the arrest was illegal as they did not commit any crime. But they were taken to the Police Center for Aviation Security for interrogation.

They said there were three witnesses who pointed to them as the suspects in the Pique case. They added they were detained in the CPPO stockade for 16 days.

Digal refused to give any comment.

Hibaya, former deputy of the Provincial Investigation and Detective Management Branch (PIDMB), said he will face the charges, bring part of the hazards of being a policeman.

 “It is their right to file a case and trabaho ra man pud ning amo,” Hibaya said.

 He added that the arrest of Esdrelon and Berger were done in good faith but if there were lapses, he is willing to answer and face it in court.

  “Dili na nako ikaguol or even ikauwaw kay ako nang tubagon kay apil na sa among trabaho,” Hibaya said.

 The Freeman tried to reach senior inspector Rubin Cuizon, former chief of the PIDMB, but he is attending a seminar in Manila.  

Berger and Esdrelon want their name cleared. They want the Prosecutor’s Office to declare them innocent. They were not satisfied with the resolution of the prosecutor stating the case was dismissed “for insufficient of evidence.” —(FREEMAN)