‘Totoy’ tags ex-judge in missing ‘sabungeros’ case; Ang files raps
Businessman Atong Ang and actress Gretchen Barretto are now considered suspects in the case of the missing “sabungeros,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Thursday said.
“They will be included because they were named. We will have to include them as suspects,” Remulla said, adding that formal cases will be filed “sooner than later” after a suspect in the case, Julie Patidongan, tagged Ang and Barretto as being involved in the disappearances.
“That will be evaluated by our group of fiscals who will be assigned to evaluate all the evidence so that we will know what cases to be filed properly,” said Remulla.
Ang on Thursday filed a criminal complaint against Patidongan, also known as Totoy, and a former employee identified only as Brown, accusing them of extorting P300 million in exchange for their silence over the case of the missing sabungeros.
“Stop lying over and over again. I treated you (Patidongan) like a son. I didn’t know you could be this cruel,” Ang said.
Patidongan, however, maintained that Ang was the mastermind behind the abductions of the “sabungeros.”
“Don’t hide from the truth. You were the one who gave me the order, and you were the one who told that group of police officers to get rid of them,” Patidongan said.
He said he has worked with Ang for 15 years, and the businessman even stood as grandfather to his child.
Patidongan, in an interview with ABS-CBN News, was quoted as saying that a former judge who is allegedly now with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office was also involved in the case.
“This ex-judge, whom I will not name, this judge is a fixer among fiscals. This judge brings them to other countries for junkets so that Mr. Atong Ang is exonerated in the case of the missing sabungeros,” Patidongan said.
Remulla, for his part, assured the families of the missing “sabungeros” that the DOJ will resolve the case as fast as possible without sacrificing the legal processes that must be followed.
“This is the interest of the State. This is the interest of our people that this case really has an end,” he said.
The Justice chief revealed that they have been working on the case for the last three years.
“Many people didn’t believe that something would happen because those behind it are very powerful,” he added.
Ang, accompanied by his legal counsel Lorna Kapunan, lodged his complaint against Patidongan and Brown before the Mandaluyong City Prosecutor’s Office.
The complaint charges Patidongan and Brown with conspiracy to commit attempted robbery with violence or intimidation, grave threats, grave coercion, slander, and incriminating an innocent person.
Ang claimed in February, Brown offered to settle the matter if he paid P300 million to Patidongan, otherwise he would be linked to the disappearances.
“We are on the side of justice here. We are on the side of the families who lost loved ones; who up to now do not know where their families, relatives are. So, we hope with our submission of evidence—because we have affidavits here—the government will also read them,” Kapunan said, speaking on behalf of her client.
She described Patidongan’s testimony as “false” and “misleading.”
“Let us see what will happen to the investigation. But in our case, we are very confident that there is strong evidence for the five cases that we have filed on behalf of Atong Ang,” Kapunan added.
Ang, for his part, appealed for fairness from the media, which he said appeared to believe everything that Patidongan said without getting his side of the story.
“It seemed so one-sided,” Ang said of a television report quoting solely Patidongan.
Malacañang, for its part, said no one will be spared in the investigation into the case of the disappearance of the “sabungeros.”
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said: “Whoever they are, whatever their status in life, whether they are prominent personalities, the President and the administration will not spare them.”
“If there should be accountability, it should be thoroughly investigated so that the families of the missing sabungeros will be given justice,” Castro added.
Pressed if Patidongan could be considered a state witness, Castro said it would depend on the evaluation of the DOJ.