Zamboanga prosecutor charged with graft

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman has found probable cause to file graft charges against a government prosecutor over an alleged bribery attempt.

Zamboanga City deputy prosecutor Roselyn Murillo-Mamon will be indicted for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Private lawyer Pherham Saiddi was included in the charge sheet. 

In his complaint, Police Officer 3 Flavio Enriquez Jr. said Mamon called him on July 22, 2013 and offered P250,000 to P300,000 in exchange for not implicating a certain Dadol Mansul and police officer Phon Mohammad in a frustrated murder case pending before her office. 

 Saiddi, the counsel of Mansul and Mohammad, ”asked complainant how much he wanted to receive in exchange for not implicating his clients,” Enriquez stated in his complaint. 

The National Bureau of Investigation arrested Mamon and Saiddi in an entrapment in August 2013 after he handed a brown envelope containing P200,000 to Enriquez.

Mamon “displayed manifest partiality in favor of Mansul and Mohammad by actively persuading complainant not to implicate them in the criminal case,” the ombudsman said.

”Section 3(e) of RA 3019, prohibits public officials from causing any undue injury to any party, including the government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence,” the ombudsman declared.