MANILA, Philippines - Lawyer Homobono Adaza was released late Friday night from his detention at Camp Crame in Quezon City after posting bail to extortion and fraud charges, radio DZBB reported.
Adaza left the camp past 10 p.m. after his papers were processed at the custodian center, the report said.
Police operatives on Wednesday afternoon arrested Adaza and four others after they allegedly tried to extort $4 million from a Japanese investor to finance fresh plans to overthrow the Arroyo administration.
The four are Army Lt. Col. Oscarlito Mapalo, retired Army Colonels Cesar de la Peña and Ernie Amboy and former police senior superintendent Rafael Cardeño.
Adaza is the lead counsel of Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, who is one of the 28 Army and Marine officers charged for their role in the botched February 2006 coup, while Mapalo gained notoriety in 2004 when he publicly denounced the AFPs promotion system as biased and lacking in objectivity.
Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco said there was probable cause to indict Adaza, along with Cardeño, Mapalo, Amboy and De la PeHa, for proposing to commit coup detat and for obstruction of justice/harboring a fugitive.
Cardeño was also charged with violating of Article 178 of the Revised Penal Code for using a fictitious name or concealing his true name to evade arrest for his role in the murder of Young Officers Union (YOU) spokesman Baron Cervantes.
The concerted act of the respondents in their proposal to Mr. (Monotori) Sakuma through Laurilla to finance a coup detat during the aforesaid entrapment operation clearly makes them probably liable for the offense of proposal to commit coup detat penalized under Art. 136 of the RPC," said Velasco, who is also head of the DOJ task force on rebellion.
Prosecutors defended the arrest of the suspects by operatives of the CIDG even without a warrant from the courts, saying the accused were committing a crime when they were cornered. - GMANews.TV