THE “complainant” who fileD administrative and criminal charges against Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Secretary Raul Lambino and his wife, Mangaldan Mayor Marilyn De Guzman Lambino, in Pangasinan has surfaced and apologized for her role in the hatchet job against the couple instigated by a former provincial correspondent of the Manila Times.
Razel Abracia Posadas, 36, the woman who pretended as “Rosela Tabano” and acted as one of the complainants identified Jaime Aquino based in Mapandan town as the “mastermind” of the fabricated charges filed against the Lambinos before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Posadas, who also hails from Mapandan, narrated that on January 6, 2022, she was brought by Aquino and his group to Tarlac City for a press conference together with a certain ‘Professor Salvador Singson-De Guzman,’ the alleged chairman of Citizens Movement Against Corruption, Crime and Illegal Drugs, Inc.
Posadas said she was instructed by Aquino to present to the press the Ombudsman complaint, and read from a script thanking former Mangaldan Mayor Bonafe De Vera Parayno for her assistance in purportedly reaching to the group of De Guzman for “help.”
“I have totally no idea about the details of the complaint nor my identity and participation in the fake charges. I just followed the instructions of the reporter” (Aquino) Posadas told other members of the Pangasinan press.
Posadas further revealed that Aquino subsequently gave her P15,000 cash when they went home after the press briefing.
The fake charges concocted by Aquino against the Lambinos subsequently unraveled after it was investigated by the Philippine National Police and the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) where Aquino also sought help claiming he was being “threatened” by the couple.
The investigation not only confirmed that the charges were just concocted by Aquino but that it was not the first time that he filed fabricated charges against other persons in exchange for hufge sums of money.
Another of Aquino’s victim was Lopez, Quezon councilor Arkie Yulde whom another fake complainant hired by Aquino accused Yulde of rape.
Aquino remains in jail after being arrested for libel and illegal possession of firearms and explosives, the latter a non-bailable offense (see Pinoy Exposé article of March 16, 2022).
The unraveling of Aquino’s machinations also resulted on his being expelled from the National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC) and his dismissal from the Manila Times (see also Pinoy Exposé article, February 21, 2022).
NPC denounces ‘journos’ arrested for extortion
Meanwhile, the NPC denounced four purported reporters after they were arrested for robbery and extortion and usurpation of authority in Tarlac province during Labor Day, May 1, 2022.
“Let the public know that the NPC never condones, as it even denounces, such criminal malpractice among the members of the press,” said Club president Lydia Bueno, in a statement last May 4, 2022, right after learning of the incident.
The official police report reaching the NPC disclosed that the four– Rene Clemente y Bernardo, 57, his live-in partner Sally Inot y Haplos, 43; Steve Inot, 22, single; and, Jason Estrada, 45; all resident of Barangay Longos, Malolos City– misrepresented themselves as agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in trying to extort money from a local carnival operator in the town of Concepcion, Tarlac province.
Suspicious, the carnival owner immediately sought police assistance that led to the suspects’ arrest.
The report further noted that aside from bogus press card seized from the group, Clemente also yielded an old NPC ID.
“Even as the suspects should be allowed their day in court as part of due process, the incident is also sufficient ground for the NPC to review and bar the future membership of Clemente with the Club for gross violation of the Journalist’s Code of Ethics,” Bueno said.