‘Extortion’ by Ombudsman?

Our latest story is a two-part report looks at some unsettled issues that were brought up in the report of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) on the circumstances that led to the hostage-taking incident by Police senior Inspector Rolando D. Mendoza.

These issues include the alleged extortion of Mendoza by the Office of the Ombudsman, and the apparent procedural lapses in his investigation and trial for grave misconduct before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office, the Philippine National Police’s Internal Affairs Service, and finally, the Ombudsman.

In Part 1 of this report, Mendoza’s lawyer, Ernesto Cabrera, tells us his client had informed him that a certain Gonzalez from the Ombudsman’s office had actually asked for P250,000, and not just P150,000, in exchange for a favorable ruling on Mendoza’s case. Cabrera says Mendoza had, in fact, discussed this proposition of the Ombudsman with his four co-accused policemen.

In February 2010, Mendoza secured a refund of payments he had made for a housing loan with PAG-IBIG, in his desire to raise money to pay the Ombudsman, according to Cabrera. The PAG-IBIG check he received amounted to P196,913.51, money that came soon after the alleged bribe proposition came.