Republic Act No. 7832 (Update 2)

Justice Prevails in The Philippines, Case Dismissed for Lack of Probable Cause

I previously wrote blog posts on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008, regarding criminal charges that had been filed against me for violation of Republic Act No. 7832, The “Anti-electricity and Electric Transmission Lines/Materials Pilferage Act of 1994” by Cepalco officials.

When Cepalco officials read the post, they complained about my publishing it in a written letter on Cepalco letterhead. I scanned the letter and posted it at Republic Act No. 7832 (Update) on Thursday, March 13, 2008, wherein I responded publicly to the letter on my blog.

I decided to face these crimainal charges against myself and my lovely wife Marrisa without an attorney, since the charges were plainly and so obviously ludicrous that there was no way any rational man, prosecutor or judge would find eihter myself and/or my wife guilty of such a crime.

I wrote the Counter-Affidavit myself, and accompanied it with a Motion to Dismiss. Cepalco then filed their Reply Affidivit and I wrote and filed the Rejoiner Affidavit myself. My wife and I appeared before the City Prosecutor without an attorney along with Cepalco officials.

Prosecutors are commonly called “Fiscals” here in The Philippines. The Fiscal assigned my case was a young attorney, the Honorable Abdullah D. Macagaan. I grew confident when I pointed out that Cepalco’s claim that my “corrected billing” should have been 47,520 peso per month (over $1000 USD per month), which just happened to be exactly 12 times what the average past consumption had been for that house over the previous year, which was 3960 pesos (about $90 USD per month).

To put this in perspective, a local business that has 16 air conditioners, several of them 3-ton units, most of them split type units, and at least one that runs 24 hours per day, and their monthly electric bill is around 27,000 pesos.

I pointed out that it was not possible that any house in my subdivision, which is a fairly affluent subdivision, where Vice Mayor Vicente Y. Emano also has a house, has ever been billed 47,520 pesos for any month let alone had an average consumption over a year of such an amount. The fiscal smiled and I knew he realized what I said was true.

Had I ever felt any fear that I and/or my wife would be formally charged with this crime I certainly would have hired an attorney to defend me, but it just was not necessary.

I have now received a Resolution Dismissing this case for lack of probable cause. Indeed the fiscal rails against Cepalco officials, at one point stating, “The undersigned is baffled by the allegations made by the complainant..”

Many local readers of my blog have asked me about this case, and I have discovered that there are a lot of people who really despise Cepalco. I do not know the particulars of why they feel that way, but everyone who spoke to me about this criminal complaint against me expressed their support for me. I wouuld personally like to thank all of you have provided me the moral support to face this on my own, as a man, and not cower before a large and powerful corporation.

I would also like everyone to know that while I have gained a certain disdain for Cepalco, I am not one to hold grudges, and I am bursting with pride to live in Cagayan de Oro City, where justice does prevail, and where I feel happy and safe to raise and care for my family.

While I could file a several cases against Cepalco now, I don’t think I will. I would rather concentrate on my family and my business.

I really love The Philippines, and I am so glad that my faith that justice would prevail here has been vindicated.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 7:14 am and is filed under Cagayan de Oro, Crimes & Scams, Philippines Expat Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.