SC affirms ex-BI chief's conviction for escape of 11 Indians

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the conviction of former Bureau of Immigration commissioner Zafiro Respicio over graft and falsification charges for the controversial flight of Indian drug traffickers popularly known as the “11 Little Indians” in 1994.

In a 24-page decision, the third division of the high court denied Respicio’s petition seeking reversal of the guilty verdict handed down by the Sandiganbayan.

The high court held that the anti-graft court was correct in finding the former official guilty of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) and falsification of public documents for giving travel authority and authorizing the release of the Indian drug suspects.

The court also upheld the sentence of six years to 12 years of imprisonment for graft and six months to six years for falsification.

Respicio was likewise perpetually disqualified from holding public office and was ordered to pay a fine of P5,000.

Court records showed that on July 4, 1994, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Domestic Intelligence Service arrested 11 Indians identified as Pramod Jogdeo, Shaik Easaf, Sunkavalivenkata Lakshimanaraya, Augustine Rajesh, Nagayya Vanam, Mohammad Rafique, Kausar Ali, Nabi Gulam, Mengesh Jadhav, Laxman Kadam, and Cajetan Merwyn Mujares, in a raid on a drug laboratory in Las Piñas City.

They were then charged with violating RA 6425 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 (now Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 or RA 9165).

The respondents filed individual requests for self-deportation with immigration after a month.

Despite an ongoing preliminary investigation against them, then commissioner Respicio and associate commissioners Bayani Subido Jr. and Manuel Rojas approved their requests.

With a sentence of death penalty to an accused proven guilty at the time, drug trafficking was a non-bailable crime in the country.

Capital punishment has since been repealed.

The Office of the Ombudsman had revealed in its complaint before the anti-graft court that the requests for deportation were approved and signed during Respicio’s birthday party.

Subido and Rojas were cleared of the charges because the court ruled that there was no conspiracy among the accused and that the prosecution failed to prove their guilt.

But the SC said: “Whether the prosecutor moved to obtain a hold departure order is beside the point, what is material being that there was a pending preliminary investigation against the Indians, contrary to the statement in the order that there is no indication from the records that the (Indians) are the subject of any written complaint... which pending preliminary investigation called for the provisional dismissal of the deportation case.”

“In any event, the cited August 15, 1990 DOJ Circular No. 38 cannot be made to apply in the instant case as it clearly pertains to Filipinos, and not to foreigners, who opt to fly the coop to evade criminal prosecution,” the decision reads.

The SC likewise noted that “the untruthful assertion of petitioner (Respicio) not having been made in an affidavit or in a statement required by law to be sworn in, he is, without any doubt, liable for falsification under paragraph 4 of Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code.”

“It bears emphasis that petitioner’s justification in issuing the Order was the lack of any written complaints before any government agency nor before any private person against the Indians, which was not the case.