A FORMER newspaper provincial correspondent in Pangasinan was arrested on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, by members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after two fragmentation grenades and a .45 caliber pistol with live bullets were found at his house in Bgy. Aserda in the town of Mapandan.
Armed with a search warrant issued by Hon. Rusty M. Naya, Executive Judge of the Regional Trial Court in Tayug, Pangasinan, the NBI team from Metro Manila led by Special Investigator Waldo Palattao, immediately handcuffed the target of the search warrant, Jaime Domagcao Aquino, of legal age, after the discovery of the above items.
Aside from this, the NBI also found out that Aquino has a standing warrant of arrest for libel filed by former Ilocos Sur governor, Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson, several years ago.
Aquino is already facing a case for serious illegal detention filed last March 3, 2022 at the Makati Regional Trial Court by Lopez, Quezon councilor, Arkie Yulde, along with Engr. Ronnel Tan, a regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and his wife, Quezon 4th district representative, Rep. Helen Tan.
Yulde was jailed for more than 5 months in Pangasinan based on the trump-up charges of rape and kidnapping concocted by Aquino against him and allegedly financed by the couple.
Jestin Aquino, one of the children of Jaime and who testified on behalf of Yulde, bared in his sworn affidavit that the Tans gave his father P30 million to frame Yulde and Quezon Gov. Danilo Suarez and his children.
Early this year, Aquino was also accused of trying to frame presidential adviser and Cagayan Export Zone Authority (CEZA) administrator, Sec. Raul Lambino and his wife, Mangaldan mayor, Marilyn De Guzman Lambino, on concocted charges of rape, child abuse and oppression, among others.
However, a thorough investigation conducted by the Pangasinan Police Office and the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) and his newspaper, The Manila Times, led to the discovery of Aquino’s machinations against Yulde and Lambino that led to his immediate dismissal from the Times and his expulsion from the roster of the National Press Club (NPC).
After filing the cases against the Lambinos at the Ombudsman, Aquino then went to the PTFoMS to complain that he is being “harassed” by the couple, which also turned out to be false.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), acting on the request of PTFoMS executive director, Joel Sy Egco, also said it would conduct an investigation of Aquino and whether he has been paying the right taxes for his assets that include, among others, a resort worth more than P20 million, a water-filing station, a 2-storey house and several sports utility vehicles (SUVs).
Meanwhile, ACT-CIS partylist representative, Rowena ‘Niña’ Taduran, filed on March 14, 2022, House Bill (HB) 2521, urging Congress to immediately investigate, in aid of legislation, the filing of false criminal charges that led to the imprisonment of innocent persons.
Taduran, herself a former broadcast journalist and a member of the NPC, said she was particularly alarmed by the methods being employed by the likes of Aquino that led to the imprisonment of Yulde and nearly destroyed the reputation of the Lambinos.