Case vs owner, 23 workers of Baguio realty firm dropped

By Aldwin Quitasol

BAGUIO CITY—Forty days after their arrest by the Regional Anti-Cyber Crime Unit (RACU) Cordillera, the owner, 23 employees and individual partners of the Casa Infini Builders and Realty Co. Ltd. expressed relief moments after the Office of the Baguio Prosecutor dismissed the complaint against them.
    Last July 19, the City Prosecutor's Office released the dismissal order on the case filed against Casa Infini chief executive Officer Jennylyn Floresca and 23 others.
    They were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with violations of sections 8, 26, and 28 of the Securities Regulation Code and violations of certain provisions of the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
    Last June 10, operatives from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), RACU Cordillera with personnel of the Enforcement and Investor Protection Department (EIPD) launched an entrapment operation against the Casa Infini people during their conduct of a business presentation.
    Two of the operatives posed as registrants and participants to the said event prior to the mass arrest of the participants.
When they allegedly had proven that there was something "fishy" going on, they signaled other lawmen to barge in venue of the activity and enforcers started arresting participants confiscating money, laptops, cellphones, money amounting to more than P1 million and others as evidence.
    Prior to the mass arrest, the EIPD received a petition for revocation against Casa Infini filed by a certain lawyer.
    The company was accused of illegal activities.
    On March 2023, the EIPD Investigating team started to track the activities of Casa Infini and on June 5, the EIPD filed a motion for issuance of cease and desist order (CDO) against the company. 
    The SEC en banc issued the CDO on June 8 against Casa Infini.
    Respondents complained that the arrest against them on June 10 caused great commotion as present were senior citizens, children and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
    Floresca said the incident left them scarred and traumatized. 
    They also declared that they were put into custody of the arresting officers for 40 hours.
    One of their legal counsels, lawyer Benny Bomogao said this was a violation under the provision of Article 125 stating detention should be  36-hours only.
    He said that according to law, arresting officers committed delay in delivery of detained persons to the proper judicial authorities as they were held for 49 hours without proper process of inquest.
    The prosecutor's office ruled the complaint against the respondents was dismissed due to illegal warrantless arrest and subsequent illegal warrantless search conducted by the SEC personnel and other government authorities.
    "In fact, the petition which initiated the investigation against Casa Infini by SEC was not even attached to the complaint for us to truly determine if there was indeed any evidence of fraud or deceit," stated the Office of the Prosecutor.
    The Casa Infini through their lawyers vowed they will be doing appropriate legal actions to redeem the firm’s reputation.