1.

Republic of the Philippines

Department of Environment and Natural Resources
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT BUREAU
Regional Office No. VIII
DENR Compound, EMB Building, Jones Street
Tacloban City, Philippines

IN THE MATTER OF NOTICE OF

VIOLATION TO KIM HOWARD W. TY
COMMERCIAL SAND AND GRAVEL
PROJECT BRGY. BINALO-AN, TAFT
EASTERN SAMAR

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ANSWER

The undersigned by himself and unto this Honorable Office in response

to a Notice of Violation dated September 21, 2021, hereby depose and state
that:

1. The undersigned is the Managing Head of KIM HOWARD W. TY

COMMERCIAL SAND AND GRAVEL PROJECT located at
Barangay Binalo-an, Taft, Eastern Samar;

2. That on October 2, 2021,a Notice of Violation dated September

21, 2021, from the Environmental Management Bureau,
Regional Office VIII, Tacloban City containing a direction for
the latter to file an answer within 15 days from receipt thereof
to the Findings of the Provincial Environmental Monitoring Unit
(PEMU)-Eastern Samar was received by the undersigned;

3. The Notice of Violation, essentially contains a findings by the

above-mentioned unit that KIM HOWARD W. TY COMMERCIAL
SAND AND GRAVEL PROJECT is guilty of Non-submission of
required semi-annual Compliance Monitoring Report which is
tantamount to Violation of ECC General Conditions No.4,DENR
Administrative Order 2003-30,IRR of P.D. 1586; `

4. The undersigned respondent specifically deny the said

allegations for simply being untrue. The truth of the matter
being that undersigned has not at any given time made those
remarks against PLTCOL Jabagat. Respondent would never ever
 nonsensically state such notoriously offensive word against a
high ranking police officer, or any police officer for that matter;

AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSES

5. In order to disprove the fallacious and self-serving allegations in

the complaint, herein respondent police officer respectfully state
the following undisputed facts warranting the automatic
dismissal of this instant case, viz:

6. On December 24, 2019,I was on duty at the Hernani Municipal

Police Station (Hernani MPS);

7. That at about past noon time our Officer-in-Charge Police

Major Jerome B Camacho (PMAJ Camacho) arrived from
Borongan City after attending to an official business at the
Eastern Samar Police Provincial Office;

8. Like he customarily does when he arrives to the Station, PMAJ

Camacho called me to his office to brief him of the events that
transpired in the station while he was away;

9. In the course of our conversation he related to me that one of

matters which he attended to at the ESPPO was to submit an
explanation for his absence on the previous day when PLTCOL
SULPECIO G. JABAGAT JR. called to our station to check his
presence;

10. That in the afternoon of the same day while waiting to be

deployed for patrol duties I and PSMS Mar Santiago L. Baleos
(PSMS Baleos) were at the lobby of our station having a
conversation;

3.

11. That in the course of our talk, I happened to brought up the

matters which was earlier related to me by PMAJ Camacho. At
about the same time our colleague Patrolman Leander B.
Caluza (Pat. Caluza) joined us;
12. In the middle of that conversation I commented in vernacular
saying “ Kalain daman ni Sir Jabagat, mag-classmate man hira
ngan hi COP dapat dire nala niya guin-papa explain anu?”( Sir
Jabagat is unfair,COP is his classmate, he should have spared
him from making an explanation) to which comment PSMS
Baleos and Patrolman Caluza did not reply;

13. At that very moment, I observed that PSSG Lydialyn Sumono

was on our back seemingly eavesdropping on our
conversation. I however ignored her and went on conversing
with PSMS Baleos and Patrolman Caluza;

14. The above facts can be fully attested to by PSMS Baleos and
Patrolman Caluza ( Copy of Affidavit of PSMS Mar Santiago L
Baleos and Patrolman Leander B Caluza hereto attached and
marked as exhibits I and 2);

15. That sometime in mid-part of January 2020,respondent

received a message from the ESPPO directing him to report to
the Provincial Investigation and Detective Management Unit
(PIDMU) for a supposed confrontation with PLTCOL Jabagat in
relation to an administrative complaint filed by the said Officer
against herein respondent;

16. As directed, respondent reported to the PIDMB on the given

date;

17. It was during the said meeting that respondent learned for
the first time that PLTCOL Jabagat lodged a complaint
against him for allegedly having uttered profane and insulting
word against him sometime in the third week of December of
the previous year;

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18. That respondent also learned in that meeting that PLTCOL

Jabagat allegedly came to know of those offensive remarks
from his wife, Mrs.Cynthia Jabagat, a non-uniformed
personnel of Hernani MPS and from respondent’s fellow
 Hernani MPS personnel Police Staff Sergeant Lydialyn
Sumono and Police Corporal Alvin Saliwan;

19. That being wholly ignorant of the accusations against him,

respondent endeavored to explain himself to PLTCOL Jabagat.
He however dismissed respondent’s explanations and
understandably gave full credence to the information that
was related to him by his wife Mrs. Cynthia Jabagat, PSSG
Sumono and PCPL Saliwan, they being closely related to him;

20. That in order to buy peace and to put an end to the

controversy and for fear of reprisals of PLTCOL Jabagat,
respondent was constrained to apologize to him;

21. Subsequent thereto pre-charge proceedings was conducted

against the respondent solely on the basis of the fabricated
allegations of PSSG Sumomo and PCPL Saliwan;

The allegations of the witnesses does not deserve any merit

for being incredulous, and for being a distorted version of the
true facts.

22. In their respective affidavits witnesses PSSG Sumono and

PCPL Saliwan stated utterly false allegations;

23. All that respondent actually said pertaining to PLTCOL

Jabagat were “ Kalain daman ni Sir Jabagat, mag-classmate
man hira ngan hi COP dapat dire nala niya guin-papa explain
anu?”( Sir Jabagat is unfair, COP is his classmate, he should
have spared him from making an explanation);

24. The witnesses however twisted and altered the respondent’s

words in a deliberate attempt to make it appear that what he
uttered were profane and insulting words to give ground to the
filing of the instant case against him;
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25. Their attempt however to successfully ascribe those words to

the authorship of herein respondent is belied by the fact that
there were other persons who were present on the alluded
 time but none of them heard the respondent saying any
profane or insulting word against PLTCOL Jabagat despite of
their allegation that respondent said it “on the top of his
voice”;

26. Equally fantastical is the allegation of PCPL Saliwan that he

heard respondent purportedly uttering an insult against
PLTCOL Jabagat, when for heaven’s sake he was nowhere in
the premises of the Police Station at the time when respondent
conversing with PSMS Baleos and Pat. Caluza;

27. The implausibility of their testimonies is further betrayed by

the fact that in the first place there is nothing that could have
impelled respondent to make those inappropriate remarks
against PLTCOL Jabagat;

PSSG Sumono and PCPL Saliwan were compelled to testify

against herein respondent

28. Sometime on February 15, 2020, PSMS Baleos and Patrolman

Caluza, related to respondent that PCPL Saliwan intimated to
them that he and PSSG Sumono agreed to execute their
respective affidavits which became the basis of this instant
case as they could no longer further withstand the continued
compulsion of PLTCOL Jabagat and PSMS Jonathan Rivas
(Refer to Affidavits of PSMS Mar Santiago L Baleos and
Patrolman Leander B Caluza previously marked as exhibit 1
and 2 );

29. It is a common knowledge in Hernani MPS the PSSG Sumono

and PCPL Saliwan maintains a business relationship with the
Jabagat spouses. It further appears that the said witnesses
are so beholden to the Jabagats that they could easily give-in
to their desires;

6.
30. Simply put the affidavits of witnesses Sumono and Saliwan
which became the basis of the filing of the instant case, were
executed not of their own volition but out of submission to the
desires of PLTCOL Jabagat and his wife Cynthia and contains
distorted facts, thus their testimonies bears no probative value
therefore this administrative complaint against respondent
must henceforth be DISMISSED.

The findings in the Initial Evaluation Report likewise deserve

scant consideration for being based on assumed facts and not
supported by hard evidence

31. Furthermore, the initial evaluation report of the ESPPO,

PIDMU, made mention of a discreet inquiry and based on
which it was preposterously concluded that respondent
broke the alleged profane and insulting comment against
PLTCOL Jabagat purportedly because respondent resented
Mrs, Cynthia Jabagat for failing to assist respondent in the
preparation of his SALN.

32. Such findings is not only unbelievable but likewise defies the
basic tenets of logic;

33. To set the record straight, contrary to the conclusions

contained in the Initial Evaluation Report of the PIDMB,
respondent never resented Mrs. Jabagat for her failure to
extend the assistance that respondent requested her;

34. Even granting for the sake of argument that respondent is

harboring an ill-feeling against Mrs, Jabagat for the said
incident, it is quite illogical that respondent’s resentment
would extend to PLTCOL Jabagat as he has nothing to do
with it;

35. Inexplicably nobody from PLTCOL Jabagat’s side formally

testified on the matter in order to support the foregoing
conclusions thereby warranting the belief that such
circumstances were all but products of surmises, conjectures
and guesswork;

7.
Respondent will never utter any profane and insulting word
against PLTCOL Jabagat in the midst of people who are related
to said officer

36. Aside from being fully aware of the fact that NUP Cynthia
Jabagat is the wife of PLTCOL Jabagat, it has not likewise
escaped respondent’s consciousness that most of the other
personnel of Hernani MPS are closely related to the said
Officer;

37. It would have been the height of imprudence on the part of

respondent to break an insolent remark against PLTCOL
Jabagat within the hearing of said persons;

Finally, there is nothing profane or insulting on respondent’s

comment on PLTCOL Jabagat

38. While respondent admit having uttered a certain remark on

PLTCOL Jabagat’s act in not sparing PMAJ Camacho,
respondents humbly submit that the comment which he made
were in no way profane or insulting. As a matter of fact such
remark was not intended to mean the way the witnesses
would want to make it appear.

39. Moreover, the exact term which respondent stated were only
innocent and fair comments. Albeit uncalled for, such
utterance was merely suggestive of what to his mind was the
fairest treatment that should have been accorded to their
Officer-in-Charge.

40. Apparently though upon learning about the herein

respondent’s comments on his actions, PLTCOL JABAGAT
took it as an offense. His ego obscured his rationality and
forgot that as a public officer he possess a higher degree of
tolerance towards any comment against his official actions
and he must not be so onion-skinned as to be out rightly
offended and worst use his authority to hastily file an
administrative complaint against the one making the
comment;
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41. In the light of the foregoing, Respondent submissively entreat

of this Honorable Office and the Summary Hearing Officer to
rule and find Section. 2, paragraph B, Sub-Paragraph 3 (e),
Rule 21 of NMC No. 2016-002 inapplicable to the
aforementioned circumstance.

42. All told, it is therefore clear from the foregoing that the
complaint is false, baseless and motivated by vindictiveness,
warranting its outright dismissal.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto affixed my signature

below this___ day of April 2020, at________________________________,
Philippines.

PCPL MARIAN ARNEL B. DE CASTRO

Affiant

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 18th day of April

2020 at Taft, Eastern Samar, affiant appearing in person and exhibiting
to me his PNP ID with No.________________as his competent evidence of
identity.

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