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Dumaguete City, Philippines Tuesday, February 7, 2006
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Raps eyed vs. NBI agents

The lawyer of the Pamplona Golf and Country Club in Pamplona town, Oriental Negros, yesterday said his clients are studying the possibility of filing charges for falsification of public documents, threats, and usurpation of authority against the six agents of the National Bureau of Investigation from Bacolod City whom he said raided the resort during the weekend.

Aside from that, lawyer Manolo Zerna also said his clients were also considering filing administrative charges against Branch 7 Judge Simeon Dumdum of the Regional Trial Court of Cebu for issuing the warrant. Zerna bared this, noting that the six agents, later identified as Ed Kawada, Menci Mamaspas, Benjie Belleza, Francis Ramos, Syrus Alazan, and Eric Plamco allegedly harassed his clients by serving what he called a "questionable" search warrant.

He said his clients will push through with the plan once they confirm that the search order was fake. NBI Bacolod chief Philip Pecache yesterday said the search warrant was genuine and legal.

Meanwhile, Leah Bobon, manager of the resort, said Bacolod City-based Presbyterian pastor Kim Seong Kook, a Korean, could be behind the raid to retaliate against her employer Michael Ha, also a Korean national, over an incident linked to an alleged criminal complaint the pastor was facing in Bacolod City.

She claimed that, based on witnesses' account, Pastor Kim was one of the passengers of the Ford Everest van who escaped police arrest.

Bobon also claimed that Kim had asked for help from Ha in November last year with the complaints he was facing then.

A day after, she said, the pastor borrowed P40,000 from her employer for his fare for Korea and, as a guarantee, he had left his Revo van to Ha.

But Ha, instead, helped the alleged victims and placed them under his custody, she claimed.

About two weeks later, the pastor arrived from Korea and again asked for help from Ha for his allegedly hospitalized wife, she further claimed.

She added that, on meeting Kim at L' Fisher in Bacolod City, Ha was confronted by the pastor in the presence of a lawyer and two policemen and was accused of carnapping Kim's Revo and stealing US$300 from the Presbyterian church.

Bobon said he believes that, after using the Bacolod police for his purpose, the pastor turned to the NBI for help.

Meanwhile, the provincial command of the Philippine National Police in Negros Oriental said it is up to the arrested and later released Bacolod City agents whether they will file charges against the policemen who arrested them and 'some people' at the resort who also mauled them.

Sr. Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe said he respects the rights of the agents, but refused to comment further.

NBI-Dumaguete City chief Dominador Cimafranca and Chief Insp. Julius Muņez, acting deputy provincial director, head of one of the two arresting groups, also refused to comment on the complaints of the agents.*RG

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