THE truth surrounding the allegation of rape against a prominent Taiwanese locator at Subic Bay remains mired in controversy with his lawyer complaining that the preliminary investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) was moved to Nueva Ecija without their knowledge even as low-ranking staffers from the department are allegedly giving them a “runaround” for unknown reasons.
In an “urgent” letter dated July 30 to acting regional prosecutor Giselle Marie Geronimo, Atty. Merlito Lovensky Fernandez, counsel for the accused, asked for an official update on the case folder’s whereabouts and who has been designated as the investigating prosecutor. This, after he learned that the DOJ transferred the preliminary investigation from the office of Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon to Geronimo as far back as May 7.
“Given the gravity and sensitivity of the subject matter—allegations of rape and the concurrent administrative irregularities involving fabricated complaints and improper legal representation—it is imperative that the Honorable office act expeditiously and transparently on the matter.
“We are dealing with a matter involving allegations of falsified identities, unauthorized legal representation, and exploitation of a minor, which makes swift prosecutorial action absolutely necessary,” Fernandez told Geronimo.
Last March 31, Fadullon ordered the case transferred to his office from the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office after Fernandez complained of alleged bias against his client’s interest and serious irregularities allegedly committed by City Deputy Prosecutor Ria Niña Leonor Sususco, Associate Prosecutor Lilia Elizabeth Hinanay-Escuso, as well as their staff in the OCP (Pinoy Exposé, April 24, 2025).
City Prosecutor Charlie Yap had agreed to the transfer of the case in view of the serious nature of the accusations.
The complaint against Sususco and Escuso is now the subject of an investigation by the Prosecution Integrity Board under the office of DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
Last May 7, DOJ Senior Undersecretary Jesse Andres, ordered the transfer of the case folder to the office of Geronimo, with the instruction to assign an investigating prosecutor.
“Human error” or deliberate “runaround?”
Fernandez bewailed that since receiving Fadullon’s March 31 order, his office had been “religiously” following up with the staff at the office of Fadullon on the case’s development.
“Each time, however, the excuse, is that either there is no further development, the person concerned is ‘on breaktime,’ running an errand or is at the ‘comfort room,’” Fernandez said.
He claimed his office also encountered the same treatment from the staff of Geronimo in Pampanga.
It was only on July 30, Fernandez said, that they were furnished a copy of the May 7 order of Andres by the staff of Fadullon but only after threatening to bring to the media’s attention the inordinate delay.
Using the same tactic of complaining to the media, Fernandez said it was only the next day, July 31, that they got a copy of the May 30 order of Geronimo from her staff transferring the case investigation to Nueva Ecija under Prosecutor Julius Caesar Mustard, who has scheduled the preliminary hearing in the afternoon of the same day.
“Luckily, I was able to arrive in Nueva Ecija just in time for the hearing,” Fernandez said.
He also noted that neither him or his client were furnished a copy of Andres’ May 7 directive; neither was he furnished a copy of Geronimo’s May 30 order while the address of his client was wrong.
On their enquiry, the staff in both the offices of Fadullon and Geronimo asked for an apology, pleading “human error.”
‘Blackmailed’ for P50 million?
Back in February, the longtime locator inside the Subic Free Port, was accused of rape, corruption of minor and child exploitation by one his former employees, with the incident happening three years previously.
Fernandez averred however that his client is being “blackmailed” by a “syndicate” who has demanded P50 million to make the issue go away.
Fernandez said the figure was quoted by some personalities coddling the accuser and with whom his client had an initial conversation.
Fernandez, a veteran criminal lawyer, cited “irregularities” in the case: In February, it was only thru a media report that his client learned he was accused of rape; the businessman only got a copy of the complaint not from the office of Yap but, from a member of the Subic Free Port Law Enforcement Division.
Despite the alleged “real mother” of the “victim” executing an affidavit before the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office that she was not the one who accompanied her daughter in filing the complaint nor did she file any complaint against the businessman, her statement was brushed aside by Sususco and Escuso who insisted on proceeding with the criminal investigation.
This forced the mother, Lacsina Ann Sinlao to complain directly to Fadullon and Secretary Remulla (Pinoy Exposé, April 1, 2025) and for the businessman to also file a separate complaint against them before Secretary Remulla.
Fernandez said even an official from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) assigned in Metro Manila and a member of the press are taking their turn in trying to pin down his client thru threats of imprisonment and public exposure.
“It is this perversion of the rule of law, justice, and due process that we are fighting against and not just about the fabricated complaint against my client,” Fernandez said.