LAWYER Jude Josue Sabio detailed his reasons on why he withdrew the communication he filed against President Duterte before the Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court in The Netherlands in April 2017.
Below is his letter-manifestation sent to Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in toto:
11 January 2020
PROSECUTOR FATOU BENSOUDA
OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Hague, Netherlands
Dear Prosecutor Bensouda:
For reasons that I will be expounding below, I am submitting herein in my capacity as a bonafide lawyer in the Philippines my Manifestation regarding my intention to withdraw the communication that I have personally filed with your office against Rodrigo R. Duterte, President of the Republic of the Philippines.
AS A POLITICAL OUTSIDER, I MADE MY SUBMISSION WITH THE ICC IN MY CAPACITY AS AN INDEPENDENT LAWYER ADVOCATING FOR JUSTICE, AND NOT POLITICS, AGAINST PRESIDENT DUTERTE.
I have been a practising lawyer for 25 years or since 1993 after finishing my Bachelor of Laws from the UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES, COLLEGE OF LAW, and later after passing the bar examinations in 1994. I practised law for a long time in Metro Manila, Philippines until, due to personal setbacks, I began a humble law practice in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines sometime in early 2015.
After undergoing angioplasty in June 2016 in Cagayan de Oro City, I was contacted by Fr. Albert Alejo S.J. in early October 2016 thru facebook messenger, asking me if I was the author of the article entitled MATOBATO TESTIMONY NOW printed on the editorial page of Philippine Daily Inquirer on 29 September 2016. He later told me that he had asked Fr. William Kreutz, S.J. about me, who said that he knew me in college at the Ateneo de Manila University where I finished my AB Political Science in 1986. It was Fr. Kreutz who gave me a full scholarship at the Ateneo.
script async src=”https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js”>When I confirmed my authorship, he told me that Edgar Matobato then still had no lawyer, as if to impress upon me that he needed me to be the lawyer for Matobato. At that time, Matobato had already finished his testimony in the Senate. I told him that I might as well be his lawyer as I had already defended him in public in my several writings in the Mindanao Gold Star Daily, a daily newspaper based in Cagayan de Oro City and with a Mindanao-wide circulation.
Fr. Alejo arranged for my trip to Manila on 5 October 2016. Aside from causing me to meet other people, Fr. Alejo later brought me to then Senator Antonio F. Trillanes, IV at Camp Crame where the Senator accompanied Edgar Matobato who voluntarily surrendered to the police. There, Senator Trillanes, whom I came to meet and know personally for the first time, formally engaged me to work on the bail of Matobato for the petty firearm case in Davao.
Not long afterwards, Fr. Alejo brought me to Senator Leila de Lima at the church in La Salle Greenhills where a mass was held for her. That was the first time I met Senator de Lima who told me that she would entrust to me the draft Judicial Affidavit of Matobato, which would later be delivered to me a few days later by her staff. Meantime also, Fr. Alejo brought me to Cardinal Tagle at the Archbishop’s Palace at Mandaluyong City, where we personally met and talked with the Cardinal.
In pursuance of the direction of Senators Trillanes and de Lima as well as Fr. Alejo, I eventually worked on Matobato’s several cases in Davao City, Digos City and Panabo City including Samal Island, where I would go and personally appear in the courts and prosecutor’s offices in said places for and on behalf of Matobato.
I personally worked on and secured Matobato’s bail from the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City for his firearm case in Davao City that caused his release from the Camp Crame Custodial center about a week or so after his voluntary surrender. I also secured his much-publicized bail from the Manila Regional Trial Court on 19 January 2017 for his frustrated murder case in Digos City that secured his release that same day from the Manila Police District.
As expressed to me by Senator Trillanes once in the custodial center at Camp Crame when we visited Edgar Matobato, I was supposed only to handle the cases of Matobato in Davao, to which I agreed, while a prominent FLAG lawyer would be the one to later make the submission with the ICC. But this later changed after Arturo Lascanas emerged in February 2017 when I was told by Senator Trillanes that I would be the one instead to go to the ICC.
In collaboration with and upon the direction of Senator Trillanes, in the last week of April 2017 when Senator de Lima was already in detention, and as part of my professional legal work, I went to the Hague, Netherlands and on 24 April 2017, I personally submitted with Mr. Rogier Emeric, the Chief of your Preliminary Examination Section, a 77-page communication providing information regarding the alleged crimes against humanity thru mass murder committed by President Rodrigo Duterte and company in the war on drugs in the Philippines.
Although I actively collaborated with Senator Trillanes and his Magdalo group, the communication that I submitted was a product of my legal work as an independent lawyer believing in the cause for justice. As an outsider of the Liberal Party-led national opposition, I have always maintained my independent and non-partisan stance as a lawyer, not being a blind loyal partisan to any political group or party.
In early February 2018, or about nine (9) months thereafter, you announced a preliminary examination into the situation of the Philippines. Meantime, or in March 2018, President Duterte suddenly withdrew the Philippines from the ICC, which became effective one year later. Your preliminary examination is still ongoing based on your report released in early December last year.
After I went to the ICC at the Hague, Netherlands, or sometime in June 2017, Senator Trillanes engaged me to be the defense counsel for Arturo Lascanas in the murder case pending with the Regional Trial Court in Davao City in relation to the murder in Davao of the late journalist Jun Pala. In that case, the court record will show that I filed a motion for and on behalf of Arturo Lascanas.
Much later also in June 2017 after I came from the ICC in the Hague, Senator Trillanes engaged me to work on the foreign asylum of Arturo Lascanas, which I did as a lawyer by personally accompanying Arturo Lascanas and his family to and working out his asylum in a country of asylum, while Senator Trillanes and Congressman Alejano were at the ICC in the Hague to file their communication supplementary to the one that I had earlier filed.
WHILE I ACCEPTED THE SERIOUS EFFECTS OF MY LEGAL WORK ON EDGAR MATOTATO, ARTURO LASCANAS AND ICC ON MY PERSONAL SECURITY AS PART OF THE HAZARD OF MY PROFESSION, I CONDEMN IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS THE SERIOUS EFFECTS BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE BIKOY FIASCO ON MY PERSONAL SECURITY AND LIBERTY
Needless to say, my legal work for Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascanas as well as for the ICC case exposed me to public hate and threats in an adverse political climate, dislocated me from my place in Cagayan de Oro City and caused me to impose self-restrictions on my movements, making me a virtual prisoner.
Specifically, for more than a month after you announced a preliminary examination in February 2018, a hostile and bias judge in my country issued a Warrant of Arrest with no bail against me in a case I was actively handling for a client. The judge ordered the police to arrest and detain me for 15 days without bail for a supposed innocuous and minor deficiency in the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education for lawyers. Under the circumstances, I suspected the unseen hand of Malacanang in this preposterous arrest warrant.
Apart from the paranoia and insecurity resulting from perceived threats, such egregious arrest warrant exposed me to the real constant and permanent risk and danger of a police arrest. The thought of a possible liquidation or disappearance in the wake of a possible arrest made such eventuality even more terrifying.
I spent a year under such danger when the arrest warrant was outstanding. I finally heaved a deep sigh of relief when our Court of Appeals voided the arrest warrant thru a Decision promulgated on 29 March 2019. At last, this Decision favoured me by wiping out such real threat against my personal security and liberty.
But my relief was short-lived, because a chain of events would later unfold causing another serious possible threat against my personal liberty. The sad thing only is that this serious threat was spawned from the direct and active participation and involvement of Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima and Fr. Alejo as well as the LP-led opposition in the Bikoy seditious conspiracy.
It came to light sometime in April 2019 that for about nine months starting in the year 2019, Fr. Albert Alejo, S.J. took then alias Bikoy under his employ and control. In a later conspiracy that involved nuns, bishops and priests, lawyers and officers of the Integrated Bar of the Philipines, Vice President Lenny Robredo and high profile opposition senatorial bets, and most notably Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima and Fr. Alejo, so-called “Totoong Narcolist Videos” were produced inside the Communications Center of the Ateneo de Manila University, a Jesuit-run academic institution, thru the active direction of Fr. Alejo who is a Jesuit priest.
In these videos produced in a production dubbed as Project Sodoma, alias Bikoy appeared as the hooded man accusing members of the family of President Duterte of involvement in a drug syndicate. Alias Bikoy’s narratives were contained in a series of several videos published in mainstream and social media, detailing the alleged names, bank accounts and huge amounts of drug money deposited in those accounts.
It is this Project Sodoma that would unleash a legal controversy for sedition in the Department of Justice against Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima, Fr. Alejo and the LP-led opposition including Vice President Robredo. I was not charged in that case because I had absolutely no involvement in it. But in the aftermath of and in relation to the Advincula sedition case, a separate kidnapping case was filed against Senator Trillanes, Fr. Alejo and me.
I DENOUNCE AND CONDEMN IN THE STRONGEST TERMS POSSIBLE SENATOR TRILLANES’ DECEITFUL AND DISHONEST ATTEMPT TO RECRUIT ME TO BE THE LAWYER FOR ALIAS BIKOY WHOM HE LATER BELATTEDLY AS AN AFTERTHOUGH CLAIMED TO HAVE FAILED HIS VETTING.
I did not know anything about and had nothing to do at all with the conspiracy behind alias Bikoy. Nevertheless, on 23 April 2019 and after the Court of Appeals voided that egregious arrest warrant against me, Senator Trillanes began his effort to recruit me as lawyer for then alias Bikoy by way of a viber text thru his staff Jonnel Sangalang, which culminated in my personal meeting with Senator Trillanes on 29 April 2019 at the Novotel Hotel at Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines which ended up in total failure to recruit me.
This event is treated in my column entitled ABYSS OF NO RETURN published on 2 September 2019 in the Mindanao Gold Star Daily which is available online. This article became highly controversial thru mainstream and social media. I am reproducing and adopting the complete published article from my electronic files, to wit:
“THE ABYSS OF NO RETURN
By: Jude Josue L. Sabio
“The Totoong Narcolist Videos caused a wave of national discord and discourse. When Malacanang’s matrix hit the news, a fire of controversy especially in the media erupted. In the aftermath of the publication of such matrix by Dante Ang himself in the Manila Times, his editor resigned in protest, decrying such matrix as illegitimate news. It is only one among several high profile conflicts whipped up in the heat of the dispute.
“As a lawyer, I was almost burned by the fire of the cause celebre. On 29 April 2019, ex-Senator Trillanes personally met me together with his lady staff at the Novotel Hotel in Cubao, Quezon City. As usual, my wife Jo ann A. Fortich was with me.
“In the meeting at the hotel lobby, I told Senator Trillanes to refrain and desist from Bikoy, because it is just a trap, apart from the dire lack of funds even for the ongoing ICC case. Jo ann also told him: “Sir, wag mong itutuloy yan, babagsak ka nyan at di ka na makakabangon”.
“That meeting was unusually turbulent. In the few times before in the past more than 2 years, our meeting had been uneventful. This was markedly different, because Jo ann, for the first time at one point and to my consternation and disbelief, spoke out in a very loud voice against the Senator, angrily pointing an accusing finger at him and shedding tears as she lambasted him.
“And yet, she was not personally angry with the Senator. I had the feeling that she was conveying a dire ominous message like an oracle in antiquity portending of a terrible event to come. Those tears, which were never shed before in the few times that we personally met the Senator, underlined a potent portentous prophecy against Bikoy.
“That meeting culminates the Senator’s actual effort to recruit me as a lawyer for Bikoy, which was first expressed to me on 23 April 2019 thru a viber text by his close-in security/staff Jonnel Sangalang.
“The text caught me by surprise, because I had absolutely no idea about the Senator’s involvement with Bikoy. Jonnel Sangalang represented to me that Bikoy had “handlers” to whom I would be recommended to be his lawyer, and that my task would be to submit a complaint with the Ombudsman following Bikoy’s public revelation that he would soon surface.
“I was lucky when a twist of the hand of fate, which I consider as a blessing in disguise, intervened to spare me from the disaster that had befallen instead later on the FLAG and IBP lawyers. Two days later or on 25 April 2019, Jonnel Sangalang contacted me again thru viber, asking me: “Atty, updated ba ang license mo? After that MCLE?” At that time, he said that he was in a meeting with the supposed “handlers”.
“I diligently responded to him by text, stating that an MCLE deficiency, which is just a matter of compliance, does not affect my license as a lawyer, as lawyers are not required to renew their license which is lifetime. Still, he would not believe me, saying “Seriously, really?”, obviously in reference to that earlier egregious Warrant of Arrest against me which had been voided by the Court of Appeals on 29 March 2019.
“After some thought, I was jolted by the absurdity: I was being recruited to be a lawyer and yet here I was being asked if my license as a lawyer is updated. Beginning to feel an insult and affront on my profession, I began to react negatively, resulting into a nasty exchange of texts between Jonnel and me and causing a lot of emotional distress.
“In an effort to placate me, Senator Trillanes thru his lady staff proposed an immediate meeting with me the following day or on 26 April 2019, but I declined, because I was still very much emotionally upset. The Senator proposed a meeting instead on 29 April 2019 at Novotel which was the venue later chosen by him. But in the meantime, the damage had become hopelessly irreparable.
“In said Novotel meeting, the Senator asked me what was wrong about that innocent question coming from a non-lawyer. I presume that question came from him but coursed thru his staff Jonnel. According to him, I could just have answered without much ado, but I rejected the Senator’s explanation, telling him that the question should never have been asked in the first place.
“I told him that they could have conducted due diligence about my lawyer’s license or the license of any lawyer for that matter by asking other lawyers, the IBP, the Supreme Court or the MCLE Committee – but certainly not me. I wonder if a patient would ever go to a doctor for a medical consultation, and dare to ask the doctor if his medical license is updated.
“Like any other lawyer who worked hard in law school, for five years in my case as an evening working student in the UP College of Law, not to mention the Bar exams, to earn that lifetime license from the Supreme Court, I rebuffed the Senator, as I deemed the question to be insulting and offensive to me and the whole legal profession.
“Although the Senator expressed a lame apology for his staff Jonnel, as if the question did not come from him directly, my lawyering for Bikoy was already out of the question.
“At the conclusion of that rocky meeting, the Senator’s parting words were: “Sundan na lang ang susunod na kabanata”, which to me were a defiant, firm affirmation of his dogged, grim determination to carry on with Bikoy and reflective of his unwavering belief in Bikoy.
“True enough, one week after that meeting, obviously in a bid to influence the outcome of the elections, Bikoy identifying himself as Peter Joemel Advincula held, on 6 May 2019, a solo press conference at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) national office.
“Although Bikoy was not accompanied by a lawyer, as he still had no lawyer then, the use of the IBP premises lent a weighty air of legitimacy and credence to his press conference. It must have created the popular belief that the national organization of lawyers was backing him.
“But matters came to a head when Senator Sotto, in his press conference, in no time revealed that Bikoy had a similar statement way back in 2016 containing the same narrative against LP personalities including Ninoy Aquino, Mar Roxas and Leila de Lima. This revelation must have doused cold water on fire. As if the fire were extinguished, the IBP declined legal assistance to Bikoy, on the pretext that he failed to qualify.
“That was the beginning of the end for Bikoy and his “handlers”. The final nail on the coffin came when Senator Lacson abruptly recalled his decision to undertake a Senate probe, which must have earlier given Bikoy and his handlers a strong boost of morale.
“Not long after the May elections, in a press conference at the PNP Headquarters, Bikoy made a surprise complete turnaround: he disavowed the “Totoong Narcolist Videos” calling them fabricated.
“This was eventually followed last July by the PNP criminal charges with the DOJ, an ongoing case, on the basis of Bikoy’s statement, against ex Senator Trillanes, Jonnel Sangalang, and Fr. Albert Alejo, S.J., among many others.
“Like in the celebrated case of the young peasant girl Joan of Arc whose prophetic words the French King at first refused to heed, Jo ann’s words again proved to be highly prophetic and will resonate into the future: the cause celebre is an abyss with no hope of return.”
It bears stress that I had absolutely no prior knowledge of or participation in the Bikoy caper. During all the time that alias Bikoy was being handled by Fr. Alejo in collaboration with Senator Trillanes thru his staff Jonnel Sangalang and their Magdalo group, I was never informed by Senator Trillanes or brought by him to be involved.
Earlier or sometime in February 2019, upon the Senator’s request, I met Senator Trillanes, Jonnel Sangalang and his lady staff at the Milky Way restaurant in Makati City, Philippines. It was a nonsense meeting, because they just told me that I should work to lift my arrest warrant, about which such meeting was completely unnecessary for me to be told. But I was intrigued when Jonnel additionally told me that I could not help because of that warrant and that they would see what would be my role later.
I thought then that it was in relation to the ICC that I could not help due to my arrest warrant as I could be arrested at the airport. As I represented to Senator Trillanes and Jonnel, I later promptly filed the appropriate pleading with the Court of Appeals for an early resolution of my petition to lift the warrant. As said earlier, the Court of Appeals luckily voided the arrest warrant in a Decision dated 29 March 2019.
It was only on 23 April 2019 after the voiding of such warrant that I came to know of the direct involvement of Senator Trillanes in alias Bikoy when Jonnel sent a viber text to me, recruiting me to be alias Bikoy’s lawyer. It dawned upon me then that it was due to alias Bikoy that they wanted my arrest warrant to be immediately lifted so that I could help by becoming the lawyer for alias Bikoy.
I DENOUNCE AND CONDEMN IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS SENATOR TRILLANES’ TRAGIC TURNAROUND RESULTING FROM HIS DISHONESTY AND DECEPTION AGAINST ME.
On 27 May 2019, Senator Trillanes delivered a privilege speech on the Senate floor following the devastating turnaround of alias Bikoy. Senator Trillanes asserted that alias Bikoy did not pass vetting and likened him to Guillermina Barrido who was another witness earlier recruited by him and Fr. Alejo in November 2016 and who also later turned around.
Senator Trillanes’ pronouncement that Advincula alias Bikoy did not pass his vetting is as exasperating to me as it is futile, dishonest and deceitful, because he had earlier tried to recruit me as a lawyer for Advincula alias Bikoy. For if it were true as he claimed that the so-called “Totoong Narcolists” did not pass vetting, then why did Senator Trillanes attempt to recruit me as a lawyer in the first place?
It terrified me to think later that Senator Trillanes wanted me to be a lawyer for those so-called “Totong Narcolists” that did not pass vetting. It was a dastardly act of betrayal and deceit on the part of Senator Trillanes: he should not have recruited me in the first place. In his desperate bid to extricate himself, he fails to realize that his admission that a vetting was not passed instead proves his direct involvement in a very crucial component of their Project Sodoma which is the vetting, although it was not just passed.
I humbly submit that Senator Trillanes recruited me as a lawyer, because he is directly part of the Bikoy plot together with Fr. Alejo, in the same manner that both of them had been involved, by way of a pattern, with Barrido and other previous witnesses. Indeed, his attempt to recruit me shows his ardent belief and direct involvement in the Bikoy caper, which he just conveniently disavowed as a mere belated afterthought later after Advincula’s turnaround as a futile and lame excuse for his direct participation.
This deceptive and deceitful turnaround of Senator Trillanes is treated in my column in the Mindanao Gold Star Daily which can be viewed online. I am reproducing herein verbatim and adopting such article culled from my electronic files, to wit:
“TRILLANES’ TRAGIC TURNAROUND
By: Jude Josue L. Sabio
“In his recent public statements on television news, former Senator Trillanes asserted that the so-called Totoong Narcolists did not pass his vetting process. His television statement is just a repeat of what he had earlier stated when he delivered his privilege speech in the Senate after Peter Joemel Advincula alyas Bikoy had publicly made a turnaround.
“When Advincula publicly turned around, I was terrified by the thought that he was the man whom I would have accompanied to the Ombudsman. Later, when I watched and listened to Senator Trillanes’ privilege speech, I was perplexed as to why he had earlier attempted to recruit me as a lawyer for those narcolists that did not pass vetting.
“By way of a blessing in disguise, that stupid question about whether or not my lawyer’s license is updated abruptly and prematurely stalled the recruitment. It did not anymore come to the point that I would have pressed for credible proof about the narcolists as a condition for me to be Advincula’s lawyer.
“Had it not been for such stupid and ignorant question, Senator Trillanes and I would have gone to the next level of discussion. I would have asked him about the veracity of the narcolists which are purported to be true in the narco videos.
“Since at that time Advincula had not yet turned around, Senator Trillanes would have expectedly told me, with a poker face, that the narcolists had passed vetting. Expectedly, he would have made such an assertion, because he was trying to recruit me as a lawyer.
“Common sense dictates that Senator Trillanes would not have told me that the narcolists are not true, because that would have been contrary to what is claimed in the videos that they are true, and that would surely have turned me away.
“Since the man who was then recruiting me was a Senator with his vaunted track record with whistleblowers, I would have been put into a tight situation where my tendency would have been to rely merely on his word that the narcolists had passed the test.
“This is precisely where the danger lies, because there was always the remote possibility that I could have been convinced by the weight of Senator Trillanes’ influence on me, especially considering that he was giving me a monthly amount which he calls “tulong”.
“He stated in our Novotel meeting that his recruitment of me for Bikoy is “kahit papaano dagdag na tulong sana” which I find to be all the more insulting to me and the whole legal profession.
“The Senator’s subsequent statement, after Advincula had made a turnaround, that he did not pass his vetting easily contradicts the Senator’s attempt to recruit me. The reason for this precisely is that he would not have said such a statement when he was recruiting me.
“In the normal scheme of things where good faith is presumed, he would not have recruited me if, as he said later, the narcolists failed in the vetting process.
“Senator Trillanes’ later statement about the vetting failure was belatedly made, as a mere afterthought, to lamely refute Advincula’s subsequent statement that the Senator is directly involved in the caper.
“By contrast, Advincula’s later statement about Senator Trillanes’ direct involvement assumes a high degree of credibility when it is linked to the Senator’s active effort to recruit me.
“If Senator Trillanes’ recent statement about the vetting failure is to be believed, then why did he earlier recruit me as a lawyer in the first place?
“If the narcolists failed the vetting process, then why was I recruited by the Senator to be the lawyer to bring the narcolists to the Ombudsman?
“If – and that’s a big if – by chance I accepted the offer and went to the Ombudsman, obviously I would just have been fooled, because Senator Trillanes knew that the narcolists had failed his vetting, but just the same, he still went on to recruit me and hid that fact from me just so that he would be able to recruit me.
“For what? For black propaganda? To create a huge media event at the Ombudsman in which media would scream to the whole world that the lawyer who filed the complaint with the ICC against President Duterte accompanied Advincula to the Ombudsman!
“Indeed, that would have been a spectacular event like Hollywood. It would have also lent a heavy air of legal gravitas to the narcolists, as surely I would have gone the rounds in media in support of the cause celebre.
“Recruiting me to be a lawyer and later telling the public, under that all-too familiar poker face, that there was a vetting failure is a supreme act of deceit and dishonesty on the part of Senator Trillanes.
“It was a dastardly act of betrayal of me, committed to exploit me as a lawyer in a desperate bid to enable him and his LP-led opposition to achieve their criminal intent to destabilize and ultimately to overthrow the Duterte administration.
“After much thought and reflection, I have come to the full realization that when Senator Trillanes recruited me as a lawyer culminating in that Novotel meeting on 29 April 2019, he undoubtedly made a tragic turnaround against me.
I DENOUNCE SENATOR TRILLANES, SENATOR DE LIMA AND FR. ALEJO AS WELL AS THE LP-LED OPPOSITION FOR THE BIKOY FIASCO THAT RESULTED IN A SEDITITION CHARGE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AGAINST THEM THAT DID NOT INCLUDE ME, AND THAT RESULTED AS WELL IN A SEPARATE KIDNAPPING CASE AGAINST SENATOR TRILLANES, FR. ALEJO AND ME.
My article entitled ABYSS OF NO RETURN was supposed to be published in the Mindanao Gold Star Daily on 30 August 2019, but was postponed by the editor to 2 September 2019 for reasons only known to him. Meantime, or on 31 August 2019, Mike Navallo, an ABS CBN reporter and a lawyer, gave me an advance information about a summons issued by the Department of Justice in relation to a kidnapping case filed against me, Senator Trillanes and Fr. Alejo, and asked me for my statement.
Mr. Navallo informed me that the kidnapping case had been filed by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (“PNP-CIDG”) on behalf of Guillermina Barrido. Up until that time, I had no personal knowledge about that kidnapping case which had been filed early in August, or about a month before I made my article entitled ABYSS OF NO RETURN. In other words, my article had nothing to do with the kidnapping case of which I had no prior knowledge whatsoever.
For easy reference, I have taken the liberty to attach hereto my Counter-Affidavit as well as the Affidavit of my wife in the kidnapping case in the Department of Justice.
Ms. Barrido was the witness that Fr. Alejo and Senator Trillanes recruited way back in November 2016 supposedly to corroborate the testimony of Edgar Matobato. But after I arduously worked in November to December 2016 on her statement which reached 60 long pages in a draft Judicial Affidavit form in the Tagalog dialect, Fr. Alejo dumped her at the last minute in late December 2016 and early January 2017 due to specious, belated and unproven accusations of petty money issues, not to mention the surfacing of Arturo Lascanas that made Barrido of no use to Fr. Alejo.
Fr. Alejo’s dumping of her must have enraged Ms. Barrido who eventually turned around in retaliation by undertaking a live press conference in Davao on 5 April 2017 or before I personally went to the ICC, accusing Senator Trillanes, Fr. Alejo and me of coaching and prevailing upon her to execute an Affidavit against President Duterte purportedly in exchange of P1 Million.
After Barrido’s live press conference in Davao in April 2017 as well as my live phonepatch interview and that of Senator Trillanes, she never took legal action in the 2 years and 8 months that had elapsed. She never filed a criminal case for any felony, much less for kidnapping/serious illegal detention against me, Senator Trillanes and Fr. Alejo. I thought that the matter was already put to rest until I was surprised to know that Barrido thru the PNP CIDG filed the kidnapping charge with the Department of Justice in early August 2019.
To my mind, it was Senator Trillanes’ privilege speech in the Senate on 27 May 2019 that must have later given the PNP CIDG a perfect legal pretext to utilize Barrido as a complainant in the kidnapping case in order to counter the assertion of Senator Trillanes that Advincula alias Bikoy and Barrido are part of the same pattern of “tanim testigo” or planted witness. Since Senator Trillanes as early as April 2017 accused Barrido of being a planted witness in response to her press conference, which he later repeated in his May 27, 2019 privilege speech, it became natural for Barrido to be personally hurt and feel the compelling need to retaliate and disprove the claim of Senator Trillanes.
In turn, since earlier the PNP CIDG had filed the Advincula sedition case in July 2019, the PNP CIDG saw the need to counter the adverse effect of the Senator’s claim against the Advincula sedition case, and thus found Barrido’s situation to be useful to blunt the edges of such a claim.
While Barrido hibernated for 2 years and 8 months and felt no need to go to the PNP CIDG, the PNP CIDG suddenly must have reached out to her, even if in the meantime the PNP CIDG had found no use of her, or Barrido herself could have suddenly waken up and sought the assistance of the PNP CIDG. And yet, in the 2 years and 8 months that elapsed, both Barrido and the PNP CIDG never acted on her supposed complaint.
While for 2 years and 8 months Barrido never filed a case, Senator Trillanes’ later privilege speech caused a trigger for Barrido and PNP CIDG at my great personal expense. As a consequence of the Bikoy cause celebre, I was unnecessarily dragged, albeit indirectly, into the controversy as collateral damage, even if I am not involved at all and was never charged in that Bikoy caper. In the aftermath of the Advincula sedition case, I am indirectly being dragged into the orbit of such controversy due to Senator Trillanes’ claim that Advincula and Barrido form the same pattern of being a planted witness.
In the ultimate analysis, without the emergence of the Bikoy cause celebre which culminated in the filing of the sedition charge in July 2019 against Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima, Fr. Alejo, Vice President Lenny Robredo and other high profile opposition personalities, including some lawyers as well as the heads of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Barrido case would not have been resurrected and filed by the PNP CIDG, and I would not have been dragged and exposed to a serious risk on my personal liberty.
Ironically and very sadly, due to the misadventure of Senator Trillanes and Fr. Alejo on whom the blame for the Bikoy fiasco is to be directly laid, along with their co-conspirators, I am being charged in the kidnapping case that is being linked both by Senator Trillanes and the PNP CIDG to the Advincula sedition case in support of their respective contentions in relation thereto, even I am not involved at all in and was not charged in said Bikoy fiasco.
Thus, it pains me to think that while I heaved a huge sigh of relief when the Court of Appeals voided last 29 March 2019 the egregious arrest warrant earlier issued erroneously by a judge based on my MCLE deficiency, it was short-lived, as it would be followed later by the PNP CIDG’s move to resurrect the Barrido complaint only because of the misadventure of Senator Trillanes and Fr. Alejo in the Bikoy fiasco.
As things stand now, based on my revelation in my article ABYSS OF NO RETURN, the Office of the Solicitor General had attempted to introduce such article as evidence in the sedition case to prove Senator Trillanes’ direct involvement in the Bikoy seditious conspiracy. But it was rebuffed by the investigating panel, because the Solicitor General had earlier agreed to close the case for resolution. Meantime, media reports came out about my willingness to testify in the sedition case if a subpoena would be issued against me.
As of now, the sedition case is still pending for resolution; it remains to be seen what the outcome would be. But it is already clear that Senator Trillanes and I are at loggerheads in said case; and if a case for sedition is eventually filed in court and a subpoena is issued to me, chances are that I would have to testify in the interest of truth. In a conflict between truth and Senator Trillanes, I will have to side with the truth.
The effect on me of this kidnaping case extends to my wife Jo ann A. Fortich. A very private person who shuns people and publicity, she was forced to execute and subscribe to her Affidavit in the Department of Justice in order to prove my innocence as a lawyer who just did my legal work for Guillermina Barrido as a potential witness against President Duterte.
It is too much already for me that my wife has to be affected personally. While Senator Trillanes and his LP-led opposition group had sent feelers before to patch things up with me, they had no intention whatsoever to patch up with my wife, making it impossible for the situation to be settled. This adverse effect on my wife is utterly unacceptable to me and marks a point of no return.
I DENOUNCE THE BIKOY POLITICAL SCANDAL AS PART OF THE POLITICAL PROPAGANDA OF SENATOR TRILLANES AND HIS MAGDALO GROUP IN CONSPIRACY WITH THE LIBERAL PARTY-LED OPPOSITION.
When the Bikoy scandal erupted, I became highly skeptical about Senator Trillanes and his group. It appeared to me that he, Fr. Alejo, Senator de Lima and the rest of the LP-led group would stop at nothing and had no qualms in using lies and falsehoods just to undermine, destroy and topple the Duterte administration in order to pave the way for Vice President Robredo to take over.
The Bikoy scandal proved that they are motivated by nothing but sheer politics, not justice. However, politics has never been my paramount motivation in my ICC submission, as it was meant instead to achieve justice. Due to the Bikoy political scandal, I began to seriously question the legitimacy of their advocacy against extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs which they are just using for political propaganda as part of their political agenda against President Duterte.
Their hypocrisy was demonstrated by the fact that there is no proof at all about the so-called “Totoong Narcolists”. In my public writings in the immediate aftermath of the Bikoy scandal, I challenged Senator Trillanes and Fr. Alejo to demonstrate the truth of the so-called “Totoong Narcolists”. I published this public challenge to them thru my article “NO TRUTH TO TOTOONG NARCOLISTS” in the Mindanao Goldstar Daily which can be viewed online. But up to now, no such demonstration has been made in public. I am reproducing and adopting verbatim my Mindanao Gold Star article, to wit:
“NO TRUTH TO TOTOONG NARCOLISTS
By: Jude Josue L. Sabio
“Even if Senator Trillanes, together with Senator de Lima, and I are of the same personal conviction in the ICC case, it does not automatically mean that, when Senator Trillanes recruited me as lawyer for Advincula alias Bikoy, I would just have blindly relied on his word that the Totoong Narcolists are true.
“Senator Trillanes is in a state of contradiction. In his Senate privilege speech not long after Advincula made a turnaround, he lamented that the Totoong Narcolist videos were produced without awaiting the result of a vetting process. He further said that the results of such vetting would just be announced later in public.
“However, up to now, there has been no public announcement yet as to the vetting result. It follows that no reliable conclusion can still be made about the truth or falsity of the Totoong Narcolists. This contradicts the Senator’s recent televised statement that the Totoong Narcolists did not pass the vetting process, which necessarily implies that vetting has already been finished.
“In any event, in the interest of the truth which shall set us free, I am calling on the former Senator to stand by what he boasted in his Senate privilege speech to be his “track record”. If his “track record” means his fidelity to the truth, then by all means he should demonstrate the truth of the Totoong Narcolists.
“Former Senator Trillanes should prove the drug links of those cited in the Totoong Narcolists, because I for one am very much interested in such revelation, given the earlier relevant statement of Mina Arcillas to me reduced into the 60-page draft Judicial Affidavit. Otherwise, he will fall into the abyss with no hope of coming back.
“Come to think of it, the turnaround of Bikoy is of no moment, because the former Senator claimed that those Totoong Narcolists had come from two different persons whose names he cited in his privilege speech.
“The former Senator owes the truth ultimately to the whole country and to God to whom we subscribe an oath whenever we testify to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He must present those persons.
“However, I am saddened to know from my former UP criminal law professor, whom I met recently by chance, that there is no proof about the truth of the Totoong Narcolists.
“My former professor is still vivid in memory, unlike my other professors who fade in my memory by the long passage of 25 years. This is because of my innate, strong interest in criminal law which made it almost second nature for me to lawyer for Edgar Matobato and in the ICC case in a criminal law controversy involving mass murder.
“Having read, as he said, my recent published writings on the Totoong Narcolists, my former UP law professor volunteered the information that he was asked by a priest, who is closely linked to the cause celebre, to assess the so-called Totoong Narcolists, but he reacted negatively saying that an assessment would not serve any legal purpose anymore because the videos had already come out.
“But what is more significant about what he said as a reliable insider is that there is no proof at all about the truth of the Totoong Narcolists. He based his observation on Senator Lacson’s publicized claim that police operatives were behind the reported statement of Advincula in 2016 which was publicly debunked by Senator Sotto. According to my former law professor, the same could also be true for the current Totoong Narcolists.
“To further buttress the reliability of his claim, he adverted to the fact that he was the one who had earlier detected the falsity of whistleblower Ador Mawanay who, as a result, later made a turnaround by retracting his adverse testimony against Senator Ping Lacson.
“I have a very high regard for my criminal law professor who is my idol. Modesty aside, I always topped the examinations in the two criminal law subjects that he handled. He also happens to be one of the panel of judges who chose me as part of the 4-member team of the UP College of Law representing the Philippines in a Southeast Asian debating tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1992, where our team emerged as Champion for the first time.
“I have yet no reason to doubt his professional view which all the more has jolted me to a further terrifying realization: I was being recruited by Senator Trillanes as a lawyer to represent those so-called Totoong Narcolists which presumably have not passed vetting, or worse still are unprovable!
In my interview with a well-known radio broadcaster in a national radio station after my article ABYSS OF NO RETURN became controversial, I lambasted Senator Trillanes and his Magdalo group for just using the ICC case as a tool for political propaganda. I also challenged them to withdraw their supplementary communication from the ICC, in order to insulate the case from any suspicion of politics. But up to this writing, former Senator Trillanes and former Congressman Alejano have not withdrawn their supplemental complaint.
Out of disenchantment over this irreconcilable difference with them, I am left with no choice but to distance myself from them and to withdraw my communication from the ICC, even as I continue and maintain my denunciation of them for using the ICC as a tool of political propaganda. Considering that I went to the ICC for justice, I do not want my communication to be used further by them for their political agenda.
I CONDEMN THE BETRAYAL OF THE TRUTH AND JUSTICE BY SENATOR TRILLANES AND FR. ALEJO AND THEIR ALLIES IN THE LP-LED OPPOSITION INCLUDING SENATOR DE LIMA AND VICE PRESIDENT LENNY ROBREDO, WHO THEREBY LOST THE LEGITIMACY AND MORAL UPPERHAND IN THE ADVOCACY AGAINST EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS
In one of my series of articles in the Mindanao Gold Star Daily, I lambasted both Senator Trillanes and Fr. Alejo for their role and participation in the Bikoy fiasco. I challenged them to demonstrate the truth of the so-called “Totoong Narcolists”, given that the Tagalog word “Totoo” means true. As the name implies, their so-called “Totoong Narcolists” are purported to be true. If those lists are really true, then it would have been all too easy for them to demonstrate the truth in public, even if Advincula alias Bikoy had turned around. But up to now, they have not done so. I am reproducing and adopting verbatim my article entitled THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE, to wit:
“THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE
By: Jude Josue L. Sabio
“Starting April 23, 2019 up to April 29, 2019 when former Senator Trillanes tried to recruit me as lawyer for Bikoy, I was not told and did not ask about the identity of Bikoy’s supposed “handlers”, although I had then the reasonable impression that Senator Trillanes was directly involved as shown by his active attempt to recruit me as lawyer. Due to that earlier stupid question about my lawyer’s license, my lawyering for Bikoy became out of the question; it also did not come to the point that as a lawyer, I needed or demanded to talk to or personally meet Bikoy himself in order to further assess the legal matter.
“I came to know later, especially from the published statement of Bishop Ambo David, corroborated by Bikoy himself, that Fr. Albert Alejo, S.J. is a principal handler. Had I known then about Fr. Alejo, I would have immediately declined just by text, because I would not have allowed myself to be again exposed to potential risk arising from my bad experience with Fr. Alejo in relation to Guillermina “Mina” Arcillas whom he had unceremoniously dumped at the last minute in the end of December 2016, resulting into her surprise complete turnaround in April 2017.
“This is not to mention my deep-seated grudge against Fr. Alejo when he did not have the elementary courtesy of telling me about Arturo Lascanas’ coming out in February 2017, as if he distrusted me and was keeping me out of the loop. Also, in a personal meeting with him in April 2017, Fr. Alejo blurted to me “Kailangan ba talagang e file yan?”, as if to discourage or prevent me, at a time when it was only days before I was about to leave for the Hague to file that communication against President Duterte.
“Based on the recent published statement of Archbishop Villegas, as corroborated by Bikoy himself, the Ateneo de Manila University appears to be in the middle of this cause celebre, given also that a Jesuit priest, Fr. Alejo, is directly identified to be principally involved. It appears that the Communications Center of the Ateneo was instrumental as a venue for the production of those Totoong Narcolist Videos.
“The Jesuits are dear to me, because without them I would not have earned my college degree at the Ateneo. Just from a humble beginning, I deeply owe a deep sense of personal gratitude to them, especially to Fr. William Kreutz, S. J., then the Scholarship and Aids Director, who personally saw to it that I would be given a full scholarship (full tuition & fees and free dormitory at Cervini Hall) that allowed me to finish my Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1986.
“At that time or way back in 1982, I personally talked to Fr. Kreutz telling him that my present course BS Physics was incompatible with my ambition to become a lawyer. He saw to it that I would be given a full scholarship after I had left the NSTA scholarship and shifted my course to AB Political Science which I completed in the year 1986 at the height of the EDSA revolution. Thanks to Fr. Kreutz, my new course allowed me to later take up and finish law at the UP College of Law in 1993.
“Veritas Liberabit Vos” is the famous motto of the Ateneo de Manila University, my alma mater. Translated to English, this motto means “The truth shall set you free”. As I said in my recent writings, it is indispensable that Senator Trillanes and Fr. Alejo, who are emerging as the supposed handlers of Bikoy, must prove the truth of those “Totoong Narcolist Videos”.
“They owe the truth to my alma mater, the Ateneo de Manila University, which is a sentinel of truth; it pains me deeply that its communication center was used to produce what are purported to be true narcolist videos. They owe the truth to the hapless, innocent high Catholic prelates who must have just happened to meet Bikoy somewhere along the way for a proposed sanctuary, like Bishop Ambo David to whom Fr. Alejo came by to present Bikoy at one time.
“On a personal level, former Senator Trillanes owes the truth to me. As a lawyer, I steadfastly stand by the truth, as shown by my earlier staunch support and representation of Edgar Matobato, and as shown more importantly by that historic communication that I personally submitted with the ICC in direct collaboration with the Senator, even if it meant going against the popular political tide and risking my life, liberty and security.
“In fairness to me, since he actually recruited me as lawyer for Bikoy, I assume that the Senator believed in the truth of the Totoong Narcolist Videos and he is dutybound to prove such truth.
“As a Jesuit who embraces the Ateneo motto, Fr. Alejo owes it also to me, for his presumed collaboration with Senator Trillanes in the attempt to recruit me for Bikoy. He personally owes the truth to me, given that he has earlier believed in the truth of the testimony of Edgar Matobato for whom he was the one who first recruited me as lawyer, and as a result, his recruitment of me later resulted into my submission of the first ICC communication against President Duterte, in which there is now an ongoing preliminary examination.
“In the ultimate sense, former Senator Trillanes, Fr. Alejo, and the LP-led opposition owe it to themselves to prove the truth of the Totoong Narcolist Videos. That is the only way that they will be able to redeem themselves. After all, how can they say that they are fighting for justice in the ICC in relation to the extrajudicial killings when they are involved in those Totoong Narcolist Videos that they purport to be true, when in truth and in fact are not.
“In the end, only the truth will set them free.
SENATOR TRILLANES AND HIS MAGDALO GROUP AS WELL AS THE LP-LED OPPOSITION INCLUDING SENATOR DE LIMA AND VICE PRESIDENT LENNY ROBREDO APPEAR TO BE INTERESTED ONLY IN POLITICS, USING THE ICC CASE AS A TOOL FOR PROPAGANDA
In our meeting at the Milky Way Restaurant, Makati City, Philippines sometime in February 2019, Senator Trillanes told me that his monthly allowance for me would stop at the end of his term in June 2019, saying that he could not anymore afford such allowance. Considering his admission of his future financial incapacity, I asked him about what would happen about the ICC case undergoing preliminary examination and what would happen with the two vital witnesses for whom I acted as counsel.
To my mind, since the ICC case was ongoing preliminary examination, my point in asking that question was to insinuate to Senator Trillanes that the expenses, including my monthly allowance, should continue until the case could come to a final conclusion. As a lawyer for those two vital witnesses, I was concerned about the continued material support for said witnesses, because lack of support could put them at serious risk and could drive them to turn around, seriously jeopardizing the ICC case.
But I was disheartened by Senator Trillanes’ reply. He said: “Atty, you have done your duty”. This reply appeared to me as if it was the end of my legal work for the two vital witnesses and for the ICC case, after all the sacrifice that I have done for the cause for justice. But what concerned me most was his casual statement that he already “turned over” the two witnesses, explaining that he could not anymore afford to support them. When pressed further by me, he vaguely said that he turned them over to the church.
Immediately, I recalled a clear inconsistency from what he had said once in the safehouse for Edgar Matobato way back in the year 2016. During a lunch with Edgar Matobato in my presence, Senator Trillanes addressed Matobato saying firmly that as long as President Duterte is still there, he would continue his support for him. For me at that time, I was happy and enthusiastic to hear that from Senator Trillanes who appeared to me as fully determined and robust to fight for justice against extrajudicial killings.
Although Senator Trillanes confessed financial incapacity to further support the ICC case and the two vital witnesses, I was amused to hear him publicly announce, in a media interview, after his term ended in June 2019, that he would continue to fight against President Duterte even if he was no longer a Senator. Judging from what he had told me at the Milky Way Restaurant, I asked myself how Senator Trillanes could continue fighting when he could not even afford the material support for the two vital witnesses and for the ICC case.
During our meeting at the Novotel hotel on 29 April 2019, I reminded Senator Trillanes of what he had confessed to me about his future financial incapacity. I pointedly told him not to continue with alias Bikoy, considering that there is even precisely lack of funds for the ongoing ICC case. I repeated my question to him about the material support for the two vital witnesses. He repeated his financial incapacity to further support them and his “turnover” of them. When further asked by me to whom he turned them over, Senator Trillanes said that he turned them over to the ICC. But that sounded queer to me, because there is no such thing under the Rome Statute.
As a responsible Senator who has been supporting Matobato and Lascanas and caused the submission by me of that first communication with the ICC, I have deemed it to be incumbent upon Senator Trillanes to continue the full material support for the legal matter. Even if he is no longer a Senator, it is incumbent upon him to find ways and means to continue the support. He owes it to me as the lawyer who worked hard for those witnesses and for the case. Indeed, his lame excuse dampened my spirit and enthusiasm. I was devastated, disillusioned and disenchanted.
It is my deep impression that Senator Trillanes and his Magdalo group are motivated not by justice, but rather by sheer politics. They are interested only in the political propaganda. When there is still media publicity generated, they render full support, but when publicity subsides, they refuse support.
I DENOUNCE SENATOR TRILLANES AND HIS MAGDALO GROUP IN JUST USING ME FOR THE THEIR POLITICAL ENDS WHEN THEY NEED ME
This situation is compounded by Senator Trillanes’s previous dealing with me. When he needed it, he directed me to do legal work as a lawyer and gave his full trust to me. But when I accomplished my legal work, he began showing signs of distrust towards me.
After I did my legal work for Edgar Matobato for his cases in Davao as well as the filing of the complaint with the Ombudsman on 9 December 2016, and after he went underground due to an outstanding arrest warrant, I had the impression that my access to Matobato and his wife thru cellphone was thereafter being deliberately cut off. Since Matobato and his wife had my cellphone number and the cellphone number of my wife, it was natural for them and us to contact each other. But Senator Trillanes exerted efforts to deny us access to communication.
After I worked out the asylum of Arturo Lascanas in a country of asylum in June 2017, Lascanas was able to send an email to me, in which he made a lengthy narrative about previous events of his personal knowledge material to the ICC case. In the interest of transparency, I informed Senator Trillanes thru his staff about the email, and I was directed to forward the emails of Lascanas.
However, Senator Trillanes thru his staff expressed uneasiness that Lascanas had access to me thru email. Later, in a meeting with Jonnel Sangalang who is the security staff of Senator Trillanes, I was informed that Arturo Lascanas deactivated his email account upon instruction by Senator Trillanes. I was even suspected of sending an email virus to the email address of Lascanas, which was preposterous because I do not know anything about virus.
After President Duterte said “My only sin is ejk”, there was national discussion on whether or not such statement could be used against him in the ongoing ICC case. I said that I would inform the ICC about it. Senator Trillanes also said so. I belatedly came to know later from social media that his Magdalo people came in December to the ICC to make a submission. But meantime, I was not even consulted or informed about it.
In the middle of December 2018, your preliminary examination chief Rogier Emeric called me up thru Whatsapp asking me about the two vital witnesses. I had to be candid with him, telling him about sensitive information concerning the two witnesses. As a lawyer, I deemed it necessary to candidly reveal details about the two witnesses in order to assure him that said witnesses would be available when needed by the ICC.
In March 2019 when the ICC exit of President Duterte became effective, I was interviewed by Anjo Alimario of CNN Philippines. I gave him an honest and candid update on the ICC case, by telling him about my earlier cellphone conversation with Rogier Emeric. When the report broke out, I was contacted by Senator Trillanes thru his staff, expressing deep concern regarding my interview and telling me to “lie low”. At that time, many reporters wanted to interview me, so I clarified what “lie low” exactly meant. I was told by Jonnel Sangalang to refrain from any media interview, pointing out that I should limit my “ego”.
It seemed to me that they were concerned about what I said in the report that I revealed “details” to Rogier Emeric. It was the impression that I revealed the whereabouts of Arturo Lascanas to Anjo Alimario. While I was candid to Rogier Emeric as part of my duty as a lawyer, I could not have been that candid to a media reporter. I never revealed to Anjo Alimario the location of Lascanas, because as a lawyer that is a secret I cannot reveal as part of my professional duty. But Senator Trillanes and his group appear to be so distrustful towards me, as if I am just an ordinary worker for them, and not a lawyer who knows my duty towards secrecy.
That directive to silence me in media really disheartened me. I felt that Senator Trillanes and his group had something going on that compelled them to close my mouth. I even suspected that they might have turned around. It could be also that they felt I was seeking publicity to satisfy what they referred to as my “ego”, but I never contacted media for an interview. It was media which contacted me for any interview on the ICC case and the issue on EJK. In reluctant obedience to said directive, I had to turn down several media interviews.
At a crucial time when the ICC exit was a hot topic, I needed to talk to media because I was the one being contacted by media reporters. For the first time, I was told to stop talking to media. But there was one interview I gave to a media reporter in the person of DJ Yap of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I defied the order of Senator Trillanes, because I felt I needed to impart publicly my side of the issue of the ICC exit of President Duterte.
Even if Senator Trillanes and his group showed deep signs of distruct towards me, he had the gall and temerity to recruit me as lawyer for alias Bikoy, because at that time they needed me to be such lawyer after perhaps they failed to recruit one. From all these, the pattern is clear: Senator Trillanes used me for his political propaganda when I was needed, and later eased me out when I was no longer needed under some pretext.
SENATOR TRILLANES, SENATOR DE LIMA AND THEIR LP-LED OPPOSITION GROUP AVOW FULL SUPPORT FOR THE LEGAL MATTER ONLY WHEN THERE IS POLITICAL PROPAGANDA FROM IT, BUT RELENTS WHEN SUCH PROPAGANDA DISSIPATES
In November 2016, Fr. Alejo thru his coordinator told me to make a professional billing for my professional services for Edgar Matobato, because according to him, even the FLAG (Free Legal Assistance Group) lawyers are being paid by them. I did the billing for 3 days. The billing amounted to almost P700,000.00 for the several cases of Matobato in Davao covering my professional fees and actual work just for the period from October 5 to November 15, 2016.
However, later or in January 2017, I was rudely informed by Fr. Alejo thru his coordinator that they could not afford to pay my billing and that after all there was no agreement about payment for my fees. I was perplexed, because I was told to make a billing, giving me the impression that I was to be paid for my services. I raised this matter with Senator Trillanes more than two years later in our meeting on 29 April 2019 at the Novotel Hotel. Senator Trillanes characterized as “lingla” or deception what Fr. Alejo did to me.
In April 2017 before I left for the Hague, Netherlands, I was happy when Senator Trillanes told me that he would increase my monthly allowance from P50,000.00 to P100,000.00, even if I did not ask for it. He made an arrangement for a consultancy with his office under the name of another person, from which my allowance of P100,000.00 would be drawn. The monthly allowance of P100,000.00 existed until January 2018 when he told me that he was having a hard time with his finances in the Senate, prompting him to reduce my allowance to P50,000.00 effective February 2018.
As if by coincidence, in early February 2018, you announced the preliminary examination. I was expecting that Senator Trillanes would restore the allowance of P100,000.00 or even increase it in light of such momentous event, and considering that I had never asked for payment for my earlier submission in the ICC; as part of the advocacy, I just contented myself with a pocket money of P30,000.00 from Senator Trillanes when I went to the Hague. And yet, I was being pilloried in mainstream and social media contending that I was paid P100 Million for my ICC submission, which I revealed later to be utterly false.
But Senator Trillanes never increased my 50th monthly allowance until I had to complain and request, for economic reasons, to increase or revert to P100,000.00. In a meeting with him, he relented by increasing it but only to P70,000.00 effective May 2018 which existed up to and until June 2019 when his term as Senator ended.
After our Novotel meeting on 29 April 2019, I exerted efforts to collect my unpaid billing for the Matobato cases, because I knew my monthly allowance from Senator Trillanes would stop in end June 2019. By email, I informed Senator de Lima thru his chief of staff Atty. Phillip Sawali about this pending billing. I contacted Senator de Lima, because she entrusted to me the draft Judicial Affidavit of Edgar Matobato in October 2016 and I filed that Complaint with the Ombudsman upon her personal direction on December 9, 2016. But sadly, Senator de Lima never acted on my request despite my repeated follow ups with his chief of staff.
This prompted me to inform Senator Trillanes constraining me to collect it from him, considering that he had also engaged me to be a lawyer for Edgar Matobato in October 2016. But Senator Trillanes never acted on my request, just like Senator de Lima. Their failure to heed my request lasted up to the time my article ABYSS OF NO RETURN was published on 2 September 2019 and until the time I went on public about the same time with my interview with Mike Navallo of ABS CBN regarding my unpaid billing. Up to now, they have not settled such billing.
I denounce their fraudulent ploy against me. Together with my wife who has been my constant companion, I endured a lot of hardship and sacrifice for handling Matobato’s cases in Davao. For more than once, I ran out of money for food and hotel in Davao, because they failed to send the needed budget for my trip and stay in the Davao region. But I kept my peace, because I believed in the advocacy against extrajudicial killings. This later brought me to the ICC, which luckily opened a preliminary examination. Indeed, it was a vindication of the hardship and sacrifice that I had gone through.
In return for that, I expected Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima and Fr. Alejo, their LP-led group as well as Magdalo to treat me well. What they did in return is just the opposite. I was tricked when I was told to make a billing for the cases of Matobato only to be told that after all there is no agreement of payment.
I never asked for payment for my legal work on Arturo Lascanas for his asylum and his case in Davao and the ICC submission that required me to travel for great distances, but my allowance was reduced which made it very difficult for me to survive economically in Metro Manila where I was told to stay for security reasons arising from Martial Law, instead of going back to or staying in Cagayan de Oro City where I then resided. Since my movement was limited especially at the time that the arrest warrant was outstanding, I was constrained in my legal work which financially affected me so badly that I had to resort regularly to borrowing and seeking help from friends. Despite my dire situation, my allowance was never reverted to P100,000.00 and it was cut off in the end of June 2019 which made my life very difficult.
When the kidnaping case with the DOJ came up, my wife and I were financially hard up, and yet we were compelled to spend our last money for the reproduction of my lengthy Counter-Affidavit and other expenses for filing of my Counter-Affidavit as well as her Affidavit amounting to about P15,000.00. In all these, no financial support came from ex-Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima who is still an incumbent Senator or from anybody in their LP-led opposition.
I denounce Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima, Fr. Alejo and the rest of the LP-led opposition. Through Senator Trillanes, I was being recruited to be the lawyer for alias Bikoy. They had the gall and temerity to recruit me as lawyer for alias Bikoy just in order to achieve their political agenda which is to undermine and topple President Duterte so that Vice President Lenny Robredo would become President, and yet earlier for the cases of Matobato, I was the victim of “lingla” or fraud, leaving my professional billing unpaid by them up to now.
They treated me so badly despite what I did for the cause. Despite his reduction of my monthly allowance, and despite his confession that he had no more finances for the two vital witnesses, Senator Trillanes had no shame in recruiting me for alias Bikoy, even to the point of insulting me saying that at least it was an added help for me after my monthly allowance would stop in June 2019. In short, they did not pay for my billing for the Matobato cases, and yet shamefully recruited me to be the lawyer for alias Bikoy, only because they were desperate about their political agenda against President Duterte.
When Senator Trillanes recruited me for alias Bikoy, I could not help thinking that the same thing with Matobato would happen. I would be given a pittance when they needed me for the political propaganda, and then later I would be told that there was no more budget due to financial constraints. It was a pattern that was all too obvious to me, which made me so skeptical about their engagement of me for alias Bikoy.
For if push came to shove, and if our discussion came to the next level, I would have charged them so many millions of pesos that they would find it impossible to engage me as lawyer for alias Bikoy. Precisely, I did not want a repeat of what had happened to me.
Madame Prosecutor, in light of all these and under the circumstances obtaining, I am left with no choice but to formally withdraw from your office the communication that I filed way back on 24 April 2017. I fervently request that it be expunged or erased from the record, and that it should not be used in any way in the ongoing preliminary examination. I also fervently request that the legal matter pending with your office in relation to the war on drugs in the Philippines should be set aside and thrashed for being just a part of the political propaganda of Senator Trillanes, Senator de Lima and their LP-led opposition of which I do not wish to be a part.
I am hoping for your action and response.
Thank you.
Very respectfully yours,
ATTY. JUDE JOSUE L. SABIO
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