DOJ starts probe of Gatdula case today

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to start today its preliminary investigation on the criminal charges against dismissed National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Magtanggol Gatdula over the alleged kidnapping and extortion of undocumented Japanese national Noriyo Ohara last year.

The panel composed of Assistant State Prosecutors Juan Pedro Navera, Irwin Maraya and Hazel Decena-Valdez will hear the complaint filed by Ohara at 10 a.m.

The investigating fiscals had directed Gatdula, who was earlier able to secure a temporary restraining order against the DOJ probe and a temporary protection order from Manila trial courts, to answer the charge for kidnapping and serious illegal detention and submit a counter-affidavit.

But last Friday, Gatdula asked the DOJ to suspend the investigation due to his pending case in the Manila regional trial court (RTC), particularly the petition for certiorari and prohibition he filed last Jan. 26 against Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and members of a DOJ fact-finding panel that investigated Ohara’s case.

In a 10-page petition to suspend proceedings, Gatdula invoked Section 6, Rule 111 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure which states: “[a] petition for suspension of the criminal action based upon the pendency of a prejudicial question in a civil action may be filed in the office of the prosecutor.”

“The pendency of the petition for certiorari and prohibition, which challenges the legality of Department Order No. 1007 creating the DOJ fact-finding panel... whose recommendation became the basis of the present criminal investigation, poses a prejudicial question that must first be resolved to determine whether or not the latter should continue,” he said.

Gatdula insisted that the prejudicial question on the legality of the creation of the panel must first be resolved since it “would be determinative... of the guilt or innocence of the accused in the criminal case.”

“From the foregoing, it is apparent that a prejudicial question really exists. The petition for certiorari and prohibition was filed away ahead of Noriyo Ohara’s complaint-affidavit... a court ruling granting the respondent’s petition is certainly definitive of the viability of the existing investigation.

“The striking out of Department Order No. 1007 and all its results as null and void will tell that the preliminary investigation has no more leg to stand on,” the petition stressed.

On Jan. 26, Gatdula filed with the Manila RTC a petition for certiorari and prohibition on the alleged abduction, detention, and extortion of Ohara last October by agents of NBI. The panel, in its report, found Gatdula and several others liable for the alleged incident.

In her complaint last month, Ohara accused Gatdula of conspiring with other respondents - dismissed NBI-Security Management Division (SMD) chief Mario Garcia, his executive officer Jose Odelon Cabillan, their assets Chona Elen Esplana and Virgelito Gutierrez; and Gatdula’s special assistant Raul Dimaano - in her kidnapping and serious illegal detention.

Garcia and Esplana will also undergo preliminary investigation for grave coercion, falsification and robbery while Cabillan and Gutierrez are also facing falsification and robbery charges, respectively.

The DOJ proceeded with the PI despite outstanding temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Manila RTC last Jan. 30 in favor of Gatdula enjoining the department from conducting a PI on the Ohara case based on earlier findings and recommendations of the fact-finding committee headed by Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III.

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano earlier explained that the TRO does not cover the PI stemming from Ohara’s complaint since the court’s order was based on the fact-finding panel report.

In its report, the fact-finding panel concluded that based on the testimony of Cabillan, Gatdula “appears to have prior knowledge and participation as well as in its cover-up” in the operation to abduct and extort P6 million from Ohara.

Gatdula, a member of the Iglesia ni Cristo, had said politics was behind the decision of the fact-finding panel to recommend his prosecution for kidnapping and serious illegal detention.

Last Feb. 21, NBI Deputy Director Reynaldo Esmeralda survived an ambush attempt in Manila, which was immediately linked to the Ohara case.