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| ARNEL CASANOVA CHARGED FOR PERJURY |
Camp John Hay developer, CJH Development Corporation (CJHDevCo), today filed a criminal case for Perjury against Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) President Arnel Casanova, at the Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Manila.
In a Complaint-Affidavit executed in
behalf of CJHDevCo, Atty. Manuel T. Ubarra, Jr., CJHDevCo Vice President for
Litigation, charged Mr. Casanova with perjury for falsely stating under oath in
a complaint filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) that CJHDevCo
allegedly concealed from BCDA that a property transferred to the latter in 2010
in payment of CJHDEVCO’s rental obligations was subject of a prior sale, and on
that basis, fraud was supposedly committed against BCDA.
“Mr. Casanova had the opportunity to verify that no prior sale was
in existence at the time CJHDEVCO transferred the property in question to BCDA
in 2010. He personally spoke with the
lawyer of the alleged prior buyer, which lawyer is, in fact, a close friend of
Mr. Casanova. Talks between Mr. Casanova
and the lawyer of the supposed first buyer and documents made available to Mr.
Casanova in those talks, could not have led to any other conclusion other than the
fact that the said buyer abandoned his interest in the property way back in
2001, or 10 years before the property in question was transferred to BCDA,”
stated Atty. Frank Chavez, CJHDevCo Legal Counsel.
“What puts the final nail in the coffin of Mr. Casanova, so to
speak, is the fact that even if he already knew fully-well that the alleged
buyer had abandoned all interest in the subject property, he still proceeded to
maliciously file a complaint for fraud allegedly committed by CJHDevCo in the
transfer of the said property to BCDA,” Atty. Chavez added. “Unfortunately, for Mr. Casanova, because of
the malicious filing of the complaint by BCDA, the alleged prior submitted
before the DOJ his very own sworn personal statement that he had abandoned all
interest in the property way back 2001, a fact which confirms the position of
CJHDevCo”, Atty. Chavez said.
Atty. Chavez further added, “Mr. Casanova has been very arrogant
in his pronouncements that he is ready for any suit that might be filed against
him in this dispute with CJHDevCo since it comes with the job. Well, Mr. Casanova, as a public official,
holding the highest office in the BCDA, should also exercise due diligence in
the exercise of his authority, to ensure that the reputations of private
citizens, who are supposedly his “bosses”, following the tone of President
Aquino, are not unduly besmirched because he did not do his homework
completely.”
Atty. Chavez also said that CJHDevCo remains steadfast in its
conviction to prosecute this Perjury case against Mr. Casanova up to the very
end. “CJHDevCo will proceed against Mr.
Casanova to the fullest extent of the law for the falsehoods he has made before
the DOJ thru his baseless complaint of an alleged double sale to BCDA”, said
Atty. Chavez. “It does not matter one
bit even if this Perjury case takes a long time to resolve and even if Mr.
Casanova is out of government service, we will continue to prosecute this case,
to right the wrong done by Mr. Casanova in maliciously maligning CJHDevCo
through a clearly baseless suit,” said Atty. Chavez.
