PASG executive beats up lawyer

MANILA, Philippines - Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) chief Antonio Villar suspended yesterday one of his men who figured in a scuffle with the lawyer of “Diamond Queen” Siu Ting Alpha Kwok.

Lawyer Bonifacio Alentajan filed charges of physical injuries on Thursday against PASG chief of staff Jeffrey Patawaran for allegedly beating him up at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) building in Pasig City.

Villar immediately suspended Patawaran, saying he would not condone such actions even if the agency has a strong case against Kwok and her lawyer, whom the PASG wants disbarred.

The suspension took effect immediately after the incident.

Alentajan recently won a dismissal for Kwok on an alleged smuggling case filed by the PASG.

Alentajan said he and Patawaran bumped into each other right after the hearing of the disbarment case and the PASG agent allegedly punched and kicked him.

“He waited for me outside and attacked me in the corridor after he left the hearing room,” Alentajan said, noting that a lot of people, including those from the Commission on Bar Discipline, witnessed the incident.

Alentajan said the assault happened after he and Patawaran figured in an argument during the hearing.

He said he asked for the PASG official’s appointment papers as he (Patawaran) claims Villar appointed him, but Alentajan said Villar does not have appointing powers.

Alentajan said Patawaran walked out of the room after the hearing officer ordered him to stop and threatened to cite him for contempt.

Alentajan said the assault was probably an offshoot of PASG’s continued legal woes.

He said Villar, who is close to Presidential Adviser for Revenue Enhancement, Jun Santiago, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s husband, “should resign if he could not control his own men.”

Villar’s men had arrested Kwok at a condominium in Ortigas Center and recovered suspected smuggled diamonds worth millions of pesos.

The PASG accused Kwok of illegally exporting and importing diamonds to the Philippines but the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed the case due to technicalities raised by Alentajan.

One of these was the failure of Villar’s men to submit an inventory of the diamonds they confiscated from the accused.

The PASG cried foul over the DOJ’s dismissal, and Villar blamed the delay in inventory of the seized diamonds on the absence of a gemologist.

A different version

However, Patawaran claimed that the incident was precipitated by Alentajan’s calling PASG the “Presidential Abu Sayyaf Group.”

He said he is ready to face any case the lawyer will file against him before the police or in court.

Patawaran told The STAR that the lawyer was already shouting at him during the IBP hearings and even referred to him as a mere policeman.

He said he walked out to calm himself but Alentajan followed him out and kept on shouting and insulting him.

“Maybe I wasn’t able to restrain myself because of all the insults, which I did not deserve,” he said. - Paolo Romero, Michael Punongbayan