Arrest of La Union judge illegal, says local IBP head

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union — A frame-up and illegal.

Thus said lawyer Rodolfo Yabes, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ La Union chapter, of the arrest of Regional Trial Court Judge Senecio Tan of Bulaoan town, in an entrapment by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) regional agents recently.

Tan was accused of having extorted money from one Rogelio de Sesto in exchange for the hiring of the latter’s daughter as a court process server.

The NBI released Tan of RTC Branch 34 while he was being brought to the Department of Justice in Manila for inquest last Oct. 2.

After his release, Tan sought Yabes’ help to look into what they claimed was the judge’s baseless arrest.

Yabes said La Union lawyers and the local IBP chapter will pass a resolution denouncing the illegal operation of the NBI agents.

The incident, he said, has damaged the image of the judiciary.

For his part, Tan, in a letter to the Supreme Court, explained what transpired during the NBI entrapment.

Last Oct. 1, he said the NBI agents forced him to go to their regional office here after they allegedly caught him accepting P15,000 in marked money from De Sesto.

The judge, however, tested negative for ultraviolet powder.

He said De Sesto had pleaded that he employ his daughter as a court process server, a request that he turned down.

Tan said De Sesto allegedly left the money on a chair inside his office and quickly left.

He said he asked his staffers to return the money to De Sesto but he was nowhere to be found.

Tan said the NBI agents then appeared and demanded the money from him, but he told them that his staff had it so it could be returned to De Sesto.

"I told them (NBI agents) that they could not arrest me because I had not committed a crime, considering that the marked money was not taken from my possession, actual or constructive," he stated in his letter.

Together with two of his staffers, Tan said he went with the NBI agents to their office here. He was later brought to the NBI’s legal and evaluation division in Manila.

"From the NBI office, we were next brought to the DOJ. When we were near the gate of the DOJ, the team leader (of the NBI agents) told us that I was being released. So I thanked God for being released without inquest," he recalled.

Yabes said Tan has filed a leave of absence because he was shocked and badly affected by the incident.

He said the NBI entrapment was fabricated because De Sesto brought the money to Tan’s office purportedly to set up the judge for the operation.