Just my professional legal work

Jude Josue Sabio .

THE kidnapping with serious illegal detention case based on the narrative of Guillermina Lalic Barrido is now being related by the PNP-CIDG to the Advincula sedition case. Both cases are now pending with the Department of Justice.

The Advincula case is not the same as the Barrido case to a certain extent.  In the Advincula case, several videos were produced based on mere fiction and good only for cinema, without having passed vetting, as admitted by former senator Antonio Trillanes in his Senate privilege speech and recent television statement; no lawyer is reported or shown to have subjected Bikoy to legitimate legal work. 

In the Barrido case, I did a legitimate legal service by working on her draft 60-long page judicial affidavit which was not executed; no videos were produced and uploaded on social media.  

To be sure, I just earlier did a legitimate legal work in representing Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascanas in their respective criminal cases in Davao as well as in the Ombudsman. The PNP-CIDG and the DOJ very well know that a lawyer like me handles the defense in criminal cases for persons who are accused of crimes and presumed to be innocent until proven to be guilty, as well as prosecuting criminal cases as a private prosecutor. 

I also just did a legitimate professional work for my submission with the International Criminal Court in April 2017, which as a lawyer I also perform part of my legitimate legal work, just like when I institute and prosecute criminal actions in the prosecutor’s office and in the courts here in our country. That is undisputedly a part of my legitimate work as a lawyer. 

While I rendered legitimate professional work in those cases, I never became involved in those Totoong Narcolists and videos and would never have accepted and did not accept Trillanes’ active effort to recruit me as lawyer for alias Bikoy. 

It is just very sad and unfortunate that while I just did professional work on those three earlier persons, and I have not been involved in the Bikoy caper, I am being charged with the egregious Barrido kidnapping/serious illegal detention complaint which is being resurrected under the pretext of supporting the Advincula case which, in turn, earlier arose as a handiwork of no other than Trillanes and Fr. Alejo without my participation at all.  

In exploiting Barrido in his claim that she is part of a “tanim testigo” scheme, Trillanes is just wanting to extricate himself from criminal responsibility for the Advincula sedition charge. But Trillanes cannot succeed, because his participation in the so-called Totoong Narcolists is very much evident and confirmed from his actual effort to recruit me as lawyer for Peter Joemel Advincula which culminated in that April 29, 2019 Novotel meeting.  

After Barrido’s live press conference in Davao in April 2017 as well as my live phonepatch interview and that of Trillanes, she never took legal action in the two years and eight months that had elapsed since December 2016 when the alleged crime was alleged to have happened. She never filed a criminal case for any felony, much less for kidnapping/serious illegal detention against me, Trillanes and Fr. Alejo. I thought that the matter was already put to rest until I was surprised to know from recent media reports that Barrido through the PNP-CIDG filed her complaint with the Department of Justice.      

Indeed, Barrido was in a state of prolonged hibernation for two years and eight months since December 2016 until she was suddenly waken up in her deep slumber by the PNP which earlier backed up Advincula for his turnaround through a press conference at the PNP headquarters. The PNP-CIDG later filed the sedition charge with the Department of Justice on the basis of the statement of Advincula. Based on the transmittal of the PNP-CIDG, the case of Barrido was then intentionally resurrected to bolster the sedition case by showing a supposed modus operandi on the part of the LP-led opposition. 

The filing of the instant complaint by the PNP-CIDG was preceded by the Senate privilege speech of Trillanes who likened Barrido to Peter Joemel Advincula alias Bikoy, the hooded man in the famed Totoong Narcolist videos, and who claimed an alleged pattern where Barrido and Advincula later on turned around.

As admitted by the PNP-CIDG itself, the case of Barrido is not really for justice for an alleged wrongdoing to her, but just to show an alleged modus operandi on the part of the LP-led opposition in relation to the Advincula and Barrido cases.

As further proof that Barrido was not aggrieved at all, for two years and eight months since December 2016, Barrido never reported the incident to the PNP-CIDG or any other law enforcement agency, and no official police blotter was ever recorded. 

Although Barrido executed an affidavit on April 5, 2017, she never instituted a criminal action by going to the PNP-CIDG or any law enforcement agency or by lodging her complaint with a prosecutor’s office. Barrido’s failure to institute a criminal case for kidnapping/serious illegal detention for two years and eight months could only mean that she was not aggrieved by such an alleged offense which was non-existent. 

If Barrido were truly aggrieved by an alleged kidnapping or serious illegal detention, she should have taken immediate legal action at the first and earliest opportunity after she had left the convent voluntarily in December 2016, because a victim like her would be more than eager to immediately seek for justice. But even after she undertook that live press conference in early April 2017, still she never bothered later to institute a legal action in order to seek justice for a supposed serious offense against her.

It would seem that Barrido was more interested in the media publicity generated by her April 2017 press conference to discredit Trillanes, Fr. Alejo and me. Further proof of this illegitimate motivation is that it took the Advincula sedition case two years and eight months later for Barrido to suddenly surface and take legal action as a belated afterthought, this time under the cudgels of the PNP-CIDG just in order to lend support to the Advincula sedition case, which puts into very serious doubt the legitimacy of Barrido’s grievance.