Individuals who backed the Liberal party, face criminal charges for falsification of documents

Agusan del Norte small-scale miner, Rodney Basiana filed a case against wealthy individuals, who backed the Liberal party in the previous elections, for allegedly falsifying documents to deceive the government and their partners in business and steal billions of pesos of revenues in mining.

Basiana accused miner Patrick Angelo “Eric” Gutierrez, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, John Anthony Gutierrez, Miguel Alberto Gutierrez, Alejandro Basalio and Antonio Dimabayu. Eric Gutierrez and Representative Edgar Erice are known individuals who financially and politically financially and politically backed the Liberal Part in the elections.

The case was filed from Surigao Prosecutor’s Office that was then forwarded to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for preliminary investigations. It alleged that Edgar Erice and Eric Gutierrez forged a mining application to make it seem that the SRMI who applied for a mining permit in 1987.

Specifically, the said allegedly falsified document claimed that SRMI was a holder of mining claims over an 81-hectare mining area in the town of Tubay in Aguesan Del Norte. However, this is not true because the mining company that held the right over the said area is the Basian Mining Exploration Corp (BMEC).

The allegedly fabricated document, the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) application, was executed and signed by Representative Enrice last July 7, 2006.

Basiana said that the application “was made with the wrongful intent of injuring and damaging BMEC, my late father, my mother, the other members of the Basiana family and me, mounting to billions of pesos.”

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Source: Manila Times