MALOLOS City—The Office of the City Prosecutor here has dismissed the drug charges against the son of a Bulacan-based journalist for lack of probable cause.
Senior Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Alejandro Ramos ruled that the alleged “buy-bust operation” that led to the arrest of Oliver Paul dela Cruz Mauricio, son of veteran journalist Orlan Mauricio last Aug. 16 was “highly unlikely” and that “the police operatives were not truthful in their narration of alleged factual incidents”.
In a seven-page Inquest Resolution dated August 31, Ramos dismissed outright the criminal complaint filed against Mauricio on the same day that his father, filed a counter affidavit with a counter-charge’ of kidnapping and planting of evidence.
Orlan is a 64-year old journalist, correspondent of Manila Standard and a lifetime-member of the Philippine National Press Club.
The prosecutor’s resolution gave credence to detailed affidavit of the elder Mauricio, supported by four CCTV video footage showing that respondent Oliver Paul was already “kidnapped” at 4 p.m. on Aug. 16 by a police team from the Bulacan provincial police intelligence unit.
The police claimed however that the younger Mauricio was entrapped in the buy-bust conduct at 6:15 p.m, or two hours after the abduction.
“With this evidence, it is apparent that the respondent was already in the custody of the policemen inside the white vehicle with Plate No. TOL-153. Another video footage showed that the same vehicle returned at around 6:03 p.m. to the same location, but this time, it was accompanied by two other vehicles,” the resolution stated.
Orland, who had covered Camp Alejo S. Santos for more than three decades as president of the Bulacan PNP Press Corps, said this is the second time that his son was targeted this year by the police for writing critical stories against a top political official of the province.
In his counter-affidavit, Mauricio said Bulacan PNP provincial director Relly Arnedo ‘masterminded’ the conspiracy to kidnap his son last Aug. 16, barely five days after an order was issued by Undersecretary Paul Gutierrez, executive director of the Office of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, against Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando urging the latter to amicably settle his differences with Mauricio.
Earlier, Mauricio said he was not out to exact revenge against the police officers and their accomplices, who all conspired and planted evidence to make it appear that his son was selling illegal drugs and portrayed as “a high-value individual (HVI) in police parlance”.
“This is a quest for justice and truth so that my son (and other people similarly situated) will be cleared of wrongful accusations. I submitted clear CCTV recordings of what really happened. The police wore no body-cams and merely presented pictures of a re-enactment of a buy-bust,” Mauricio said. “Obviously, it was a moro-moro, farcical buy-bust,” he added.
Mauricio also condemned the ‘14-day delay’ in the release of his son which he described as “orchestrated, intentional and deliberate’ to prolong the suffering of my son who had been illegally detained without a warrant since Aug. 16. His son was released only last Sept. 14 at 4 p.m.
