DOJ junks CJHDevCo spokesman’s MR on perjury charges

The Department of Justice (DOJ) denied the Motion for Reconsideration (MR) filed by Manuel T. Ubarra Jr., the lawyer and spokesperson of the Sobrepena-led Camp John Hay Development Corporation (CJHDevCo) on the perjury charges filed against him by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) before the DOJ.

“Respondent Ubarra, Jr. is a lawyer. It needs no reiteration that the ethical standards applicable to a member of the bar, who thereby automatically becomes a court officer, must necessarily be one higher than that of the market place,” stated the five-page resolution dated 11 February 2014 penned by Prosecution Attorney Gail Stephanie C. Maderazo and approved by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony D. Fadullon and Prosecutor General Claro A. Arellano.

BCDA president and CEO Arnel D. Casanova welcomed the resolution, adding that the DOJ’s resolution is a “glaring indicator” that Manuel T. Ubarra, Jr. has “zero credibility.”

“We laud the DOJ of its decision to deny the MR, it is indeed a legal victory for the BCDA,” Casanova said adding that the case filed by Ubarra, Jr. was a clear case of harassment.
It would be recalled that CJHDevCo spokesperson and lawyer Manuel T. Ubarra, Jr. was arraigned by the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 41 last 20 January 2014 for perjury. Ubarra’s arraignment came after the court junked his lawyers’ motion to dismiss the perjury case.

The perjury case against Ubarra stemmed from the alleged deliberate assertion of falsehood in a sworn statement given to the Office of the Ombudsman.

BCDA president and CEO Casanova filed a complaint for perjury with the DOJ, citing glaring falsehoods in the affidavit executed by Ubarra, Jr. who is the vice president for litigation of the CJHDevCo, a lessee of the BCDA-owned Camp John Hay, Baguio City which owes government Php3.4 billon in rental arrears.

Casanova’s complaint stated that on July 4, 2012, Respondent Ubarra, Jr. executed a Complaint-Affidavit before Atty. Marlyn T. Galvez, Director of the Public Assistance Bureau of the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City, falsely accusing Casanova that he did not promptly respond to CJHDevoCo’s letter dated December 29, 2009; that it took Casanova more than sixty (60) days to reply in a letter dated March 1, 2010.

“In making these statements, Respondent (Ubarra, Jr.) deliberately asserted falsehoods under oath. I only became President and CEO of BCDA when I took my oath of office on April 15, 2011,” Casanova’s complaint read. The imputed acts took place more than a year before Casanova became the BCDA president.

Casanova’s complaint emphasized that “Respondent’s (Ubarra, Jr.’s) affidavit was required by law. The Rules of Procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman, Administrative Order No. 7, require that complaints filed before the Office of the Ombudsman should be under oath or, if not, substantiated by the affidavit of the complainant or those of his supporting witnesses.”