Castro files raps against seven officers at Ombud
Cebu City Asst. Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro shows to reporters the complaint she filed against the seven police officers at the Ombudsman-Visayas office. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
ONE week after she was arrested and detained, Cebu City Asst. Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro went after her accusers and filed a string of charges against them.
The feisty prosecutor yesterday requested the Ombudsman and the Police Regional Office to investigate and suspend the seven policemen who arrested her and her six companions during a confrontation inside Camp Sergio Osmeña in Cebu City last March 7.
She said the respondents — all members of the Regional Special Operations Task Group (RSOG) — committed grave misconduct and violated Presidential Decree 1829 which penalizes the “obstruction of apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders.”
The complaint Castro filed before the anti-graft office will be forwarded to the Ombudsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (MOLEO) in Manila.
The prosecutor is hoping the police officers who allegedly harassed her and her companions will be dismissed from government service.
“I will not expose myself to perjury if I am not telling the truth. What I am concerned with, as an officer of the court, is to see to it that justice is served,” she said.
Named respondents in the case filed before the Ombudsman were Supt. Rex Derilo, head of the RSOG 7; Senior Insp. Romeo Sentinta Jr.; Senior Insp. Ruel Burlat;
SPO1 Roy Carlo Veloso; PO3 Joseph Bugtai; PO2 Esmeraldo Quillosa; and PO3 Cesar Pandong.
Also impleaded was Alfredo Oler-Oleo of Stonghold Insurance Bonding Company who Castro said did not inform the court that a fugitive was at the RSOG 7 office.
Last Monday, Castro and her six companions were arrested inside the RSOG 7 office for allegedly attacking her estranged husband’s live-in partner whom she sued for four counts of libel.
The 46-year-old prosecutor allegedly went berserk, harassed the policemen, bit one of them, and ordered her companions to forcibly open the door of the room where Maricel Gregory, the live-in partner of her estranged husband Greco Sanchez, was held under custody.
Castro and her companions were charged with direct assault and malicious mischief before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities. They immediately posted bail to secure temporary liberty pending resolution of the charges.
In her complaint, the prosecutor claimed she and her four male companions were mauled by the RSOG policemen.
Castro said she went to the RSOG office to verify reports that Gregory was protected by policemen.
The prosecutor said she and four of her companions — William Contamina, Leo Suaso, Jonas Niñez, and Benjielito Lapera — were mauled by the respondents.
Chief Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, acting Police Regional Office chief, said they will conduct an impartial investigation into the incident.
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