The Department of Justice has started the preliminary investigation on the criminal charges against six airport personnel implicated in the tanim-bala or bullet-planting scheme at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Two of the respondents Marvin Garcia and Ma. Elma Cegna from the Office for Transportation Security showed up during the hearing at 2 p.m. on Monday before Assistant Prosecution Attorney Honey Rose Delgado.
The other respondents, Philippine National Police–Aviation Security Group operatives Police Inspector Adriano Junio, SPO4 Ramon Bernardo and SPO2 Romy Navarro and Rolando Clarin, failed to attend the PI, but sent their lawyers.
All respondents asked for more time to refute the complaint filed against them by Lane White, the American missionary reportedly victimized by the scheme last September, and his stepmother Eloisa Zoleta.
They sought copies first of the evidence gathered by the National Bureau of Investigation, including CCTV footage, before they would submit their respective counter-affidavits.
The prosecutor granted the plea and gave them until Jan. 8 next year to answer the charges.
Garcia and Cegna were charged with violation of Article 5, Section 3 (B) (Liability for Planting Evidence) under Republic Act 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunitions Regulation Act).
On the other hand, the police officers were charged with violation of Article 293 (robbery and extortion) of the Revised Penal Code, violation of Republic Act 7438, or An Act Defining Certain Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or under Custodial Investigation and Duties of the Arresting, Detaining or Investigating Officers, and Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
The 20-year-old White was arrested last Sept. 17 and charged with possession of a 22-caliber bullet, which was supposedly detected when his baggage went through the x-ray scanner at the Naia. The court already dismissed the case against him and he already left the country last week.
White said his refusal to cough up P30,000 allegedly demanded by OTS personnel in exchange for his release led to his detention for six days at the ASG detention cell and the filing of charges against him for violation of RA 10591 before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court.