Lacson’s brother files raps vs CIDG

Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s brother Romulo filed criminal charges yesterday against the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) team that conducted a raid last June 17 on a security agency he co-owns in Parañaque City.

Charges of malicious prosecution, incriminating innocent persons and perjury were filed against CIDG Inspector Ricky Neron as well as other members of the raiding team.

Zenaida Descargar, chief security director of the Golden Armour Security and Allied Services Inc., named Neron as the respondent in the complaint she filed on behalf of Lacson’s brother before the city prosecutor’s office.

Neron was the CIDG agent who requested the search warrants issued by Parañaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 274 Judge Fortunito Madrona.

Descargar also complained that Neron — with Col. Perfecto Marin, Chief Inspector Eleazar Mata, five other CIDG agents, and several John Does — violated Article 363 of the Revised Penal Code, which states that "any person who, by any act not constituting perjury, shall directly incriminate or impute to an innocent person the commission of a crime."

"We know that the real objective of the raiders is to further besmirch the reputation of my brother, who continued to win the support and imagination of the masses in his presidential bid," Romulo Lacson said.

He added that the case against the CIDG team stemmed from "the highly illegal and irregular conduct of the raid."

Madrona had issued a search warrant for Units 7 and 8 of the Maja Food Plaza building along Ninoy Aquino Avenue in Barangay San Dionisio, Parañaque City. A separate search warrant was issued for Unit 9, based on the CIDG’s request.

All three units are occupied by the security agency.

Manuel de Guia, the security agency’s lawyer, filed a motion to quash the search warrant for Unit 9 last week before Madrona’s sala, contending that there were no witnesses when CIDG agents searched the unit.

Seized during the raid on Unit 9 were two pieces of electric blasting caps, a nine-volt battery, a Mark 11 hand grenade, one-fourth pound of TNT, a meter-long detonating cord, half a kilo of ammonium nitrate, an alarm clock, two meters of lead wire, a kilo of military-grade C-4 explosives and a non-electric blasting cap.

Guia noted there were no explosives found in Units 7 and 8, where there were witnesses during the search.

The hearing for the motion to quash the search warrant for Unit 9 was held in abeyance and moved to July 25 because the CIDG has yet to file a formal complaint before the city prosecutor’s office, according to the RTC Branch 274’s clerk of court Roberto Makalintal Jr.

He said that without the complaint filed before the fiscal, public prosecutor Apolinar Quetulio Jr. does not have the authority to represent the state in the case against the security agency.

Lacson’s camp denounced the raid, claiming it was politically motivated, and that the evidence was planted.

PNP-CIDG Director Eduardo Matillano and Malacañang officials have denied the allegation.

Matillano said the CIDG acted on a tip that explosives were stored in the security agency’s offices.

He said the security agency’s license to operate would likely be revoked because "they are not allowed to keep explosives within the premises."

"We are still investigating who are the people responsible for bringing the devices," Matillano said.

Lacson and Matillano have been at odds with each other since their days at the Philippine Military Academy, where they graduated in 1971.