Court warns cop keeping couple from Canada

A Quezon City trial court judge gave an ultimatum Thursday to a police officer who failed to present on February 9 two detainees in his custody. Judge Evelyn Corpus Cabochan of the court’s Branch 98 ordered Police Superintendent Constante Agpaoa to bring to court on February 22 Janice Florence del Rosario, 44, and Kaye Gravador del Rosario, 33, who were deported from Canada on Jan 19 for a string of estafa cases in different courts in the Philippines. Cabochan said she would be compelled to cite Agpaoa in contempt of court should he fail for the second time to present the del Rosarios before her sala for arraignment in estafa cases the police officer himself filed four years ago. Contempt partakes the nature of a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment. Agpaoa defied a court order on February 9 to produce the del Rosarios in court. The court sent him “show cause" order for his defiance. He was also told to explain why he has not submitted a “return" on the court-issued warrant he used in arresting the del Rosarios upon their arrival from Canada on Jan 21. In a hearing on Thursday, the police officer said he received the court’s “produce order" late afternoon on Feb 8 and that there was no available vehicle to transport the couple to court the next day. Cabochan could not hide her displeasure over Agpaoa’s excuse, and berated the police officer for giving inconsistent and even contradicting alibis. She noted that his emissary in the Feb 9 hearing told the court Janice del Rosario complained of feeling dizzy while another claimed she attended another court hearing. Cabochan informed Agpaoa that she had already signed a commitment order for the incarceration of Janice del Rosario at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City and Kaye del Rosario at the Quezon City jail. “Kailangan i-implement mo ‘yan kundi malalagot ka sa akin (You have to implement that, or you will have to answer to me)," the judge warned. The couple will be arraigned on a case Agpaoa and his wife, Francisca, also a police officer, in 2003 for violations of Batas Pambansa 22, or estafa, also known as the bouncing checks law. The Agpaoa couple entrusted P7.16 million of their money to the del Rosarios for a loan “re-discounting" that would have earned them 10 percent interest each month. Agpaoa said the del Rosarios remitted interests for two years until they disappeared in March 2003. After having been berated by the judge during the hearing, Agpaoa promised the court he would bring the couple on Feb 22 and turn them over to the jail authorities. Branch 58 of the San Juan metropolitan trial court, under the late Judge Guillermo Purganan, convicted Janice of eight counts of estafa in July 1997 involving P1.7 million worth of jewelry owed to businesswoman Dely Tan. Del Rosario was sentenced to four years imprisonment and indemnity of the amount swindled. Tan said she had Janice put in jail in 1997 but that she managed to get out by allegedly bribing corrupt police officers. It was during that incarceration that Janice met Kaye, who was one of her young jail guards at the San Juan detention center. Janice was also convicted of another eight counts of estafa in April 1998 involving P338,165 at the same Quezon City RTC branch by then Judge Justo M. Sultan. She was meted eight years jail term and indemnity of the amount swindled to Dr. Richard Dizon and his wife, Jennifer. The Dizons said they even accommodated Janice and her two children for two months in their home in the mid-90s, unaware that she would dupe them with their life savings. Tan and Jannifer Dizon said Agpaoa apparently wanted the del Rosarios to pay him before he turns them over to the court for transfer of confinement. Janice and Kaye have been in the custody of Agpaoa since they arrived in the country on Jan 20. Their two children aged 13 and 8 who were deported with them were turned over to their relatives. In Canada, the couple had also been charged with fraud and falsification of documents for duping fellow Filipinos or foreign citizens married to Filipinos with their life savings estimated at between C$3.5 million and C$5 million. The couple left the Philippines in March 2003, leaving behind some P250 million worth of “investments" placed by at least 200 police and military officers and scores of private individuals and businesspersons through her JDR Trading. Former senator Rene Saguisag, counsel for the del Rosarios, said he would file a motion for bail for Kaye after he is arraigned for estafa. A staff in the trial court said Kaye could also be sued for infidelity in the custody of a detainee when he took Janice out of jail and fled with her to Canada in 2003. Saguisag conceded he could no longer take Janice out of prison, given the convictions on a total of 16 counts of estafa by the Quezon City and San Juan courts. Prosecutor Donald Lee said he would not object to the bail petition for Kaye, considering that estafa is a bailable offense in the Philippines. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV