Paras files kidnap, wiretap raps vs Hontiveros

MANILA, Philippines — Lawyer and former Negros Oriental representative Jacinto Paras yesterday filed a criminal complaint against Sen. Risa Hontiveros for supposedly taking illegal custody of three minor witnesses in the killing of 17-year-old student Kian Loyd delos Santos in a police operation.

In a 20-page complaint, Paras, together with lawyers Eligio Mallari and Nestor Ifurong, urged the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate Hontiveros for obstruction of justice under Presidential Decree 1829, kidnapping under the Revised Penal Code, abuse and exploitation of minors under Republic Act 7610 and three counts of violation of RA 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law.

The charges stemmed from Hontiveros’ alleged taking of custody of three siblings who supposedly witnessed the killing of Delos Santos on Aug. 16 allegedly by members of the Caloocan police.

The complainants said Hontiveros took custody of the three aged 13, six and nine from Aug. 19 to Sept. 3 “without informing the authorities of their whereabouts” and likewise without court authorization and despite demands from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to have custody of the minors for them to be turned into state witnesses in their own investigation.

“If you remember, Mrs. Hontiveros was asked or requested to turn over the minor witness or witnesses to PAO and DOJ for a possible interview and investigation but she refused. The purpose of that turnover to PAO or DOJ was for the expeditious course of the case against Kian Loyd delos Santos,” Paras told reporters after filing the complaint.

“The clamor of the people to help justice prevail on the killing of Kian was quite revealing at that time. Hontiveros refused to surrender the witnesses which is considered violation of the law

constituting an obstruction of justice,” he added.

The complainant said the three witnesses were presented at the Senate on Sept. 4 during an inquiry on Delos Santos’ death. But after the hearing, Hontiveros supposedly again took custody of the three minors and turned them over to Caloocan Bishop Pablo David.

The complainants claimed that Hontiveros, through lawyer Kristine Mendoza, influenced the three minors not to go with their father when he went to David’s residence to get them on Sept. 9.

“There was a demand from the father to return [them]. So in kidnapping, refusing to return a minor is also another crime, some sort of illegally detaining... The other one is inducing a minor to abandon his home or the home of his parents or the home of his guardian, that’s exploitation of minor,” Paras said.

Meanwhile, the wiretapping charge stemmed from Hontiveros’ alleged illegal recording of the exchange of text messages between Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and a certain “Cong Jing.”

In her privilege speech on Sept. 11, Hontiveros bared that a member of the media “inadvertently captured a text message exchange on the screen of the phone of Aguirre” on Sept. 5, during the second day of the hearing on Delos Santos’ death.

Hontiveros said that when the photo was zoomed, the screenshot revealed that Aguirre and a member of the Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) – Cong Jing – were supposedly in connivance to speed up the filing of cases against her. 

“Respondent Hontiveros-Baraquel in connivance with John Doe (photographer) committed the criminal offense of violation of the Anti-Wiretapping Law or Republic Act 4200 by using a device (camera) to secretly record a private communication between a certain Cong. Jing and Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre consisting of the exchange of text message between the two ...without being authorized by both parties who were in communication with each other,” the complaint read.

During the interview, Paras neither confirmed nor denied if he was the “Cong Jing” capture in the photo of Aguirre’s cellphone screen, but maintained that “recording a private communication using any device where such recording is not authorized” constitutes wiretapping.

“I will not deny that I may have sent text messages to Secretary Aguirre. I have also texted the secretary criticizing the way Hontiveros was posing questions to the witness. If I was alluded to, I admit I may have texted but I was not able to receive his text message or I might have not read because of the many messages I received [that day],” Paras said.

An empty complaint

Hontiveros said the ombudsman must not waste time in an empty complaint supposedly meant to divert the public’s attention from the issue of Delos Santos’ death and the DOJ and VACC’s connivance to file cases against her.

“This confirms the conspiracy hatched by Secretary Aguirre and his VACC to ‘expedite’ the filing of cases against me. It also confirms that the Cong. Jing whom Secretary Aguirre was texting was former representative Jacinto Paras,” Hontiveros said in a statement yesterday.

She also said the public should not pay attention to the complaint filed against her as it was just “a desperate attempt to deflect public attention away from their text conversation inadvertently captured by someone’s camera lens.”

She said the photo shot of the text conversation between Aguirre and Paras “caught them red-handed plotting against me during a Senate hearing inside the Senate.”

The senator also said the complaint only confirmed the “conspiracy” hatched by Aguirre and the VACC to “expedite” the filing of cases against her. – With Paolo Romero