Zamboanga City prosecutor faces graft over alleged bribery

The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the filing of graft charges against a prosecutor in Zamboanga City for allegedly bribing a complainant not to pursue a murder case against two individuals.

In a resolution signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, Zamboanga Deputy City Prosecutor Roselyn Murillo-Mamon was ordered charged before the Sandiganbayan with violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Section 3 (e) of RA 3019 prohibits public official from giving unwarranted benefit, advantage or preference to any party or from causing any party, including the government, undue injury.

Also ordered charged as Mamon’s co-accused was private lawyer Pherham Saiddi.

Based on the Ombudsman’s investigation, Mamon, on July 22, 2013, called the complainant PO3 Flavio Enriquez, Jr. and offered to pay him P250,000 to P300,000 in exchange for not implicating a certain Dadol Mansul and Police Officer Phon Mohammad in a frustrated murder case pending before Mamon’s office.

The Ombudsman said Enriquez, in his sworn statement, also narrated that Saiddi, the legal counsel of Mansul and Mohammad, even asked him how much money he wanted “in exchange for not implicating his clients.”

Adding strength to the Ombudsman’s ruling is an entrapment operation conducted by the operatives of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after Enriquez reported the alleged bribery attempt to his superiors.

Based on the Ombudsman’s records, the NBI, in August 2013, caught Mamon and Saiddi in an entrapment operation as he was handing over to Enriquez a brown envelope containing P200,000.

The Ombudsman dismissed Mamon and Saiddi’s claim that the P200,000 was part of the “blood money” and not a bribe offer.

“Respondent [Mamon] displayed manifest partiality in favor of Mansul and PO3 Mohammad by actively persuading complainant not to implicate them in [the] criminal case,” the Ombudsman’s resolution read. —KBK, GMA News