Employees of the Makati City government filed yesterday charges of illegal detention and grave coercion against Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano and other city officials before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Taguig.

 Three counts of illegal detention for violation of Art. 267 of the Revised Penal Code, and one count of grave coercion for violation of Art. 286 of the Code, have been filed against Cayetano.

Included in the charge sheet are Taguig City Administrator Jose Luis Montales,  Maria Theresa Veloso, head of Business Permits and Licensing Office, Danny Cañaveral, Traffic Management Office head, and several John Does who introduced themselves as personnel of the Taguig local government unit.

Three complainants submitted affidavits attesting that they were harassed and detained against their will by several Taguig personnel who claimed to have acted on the orders of Mayor Cayetano.

Based on their statements, they were involved in three separate incidents that occurred successively on 1, 2 and 3 March 2024, all in the vicinity of the Makati Park and Garden.

 The fourth complainant filed a case against Cayetano, et. al. for grave coercion after being prevented by Taguig personnel from reporting to work at the Makati Aqua Sports Arena, which is adjacent to the park.

Salvador C. Palisa, an employee of the Makati Department of Environmental Services in charge of the maintenance within and around Makati Park and Garden, complained of being locked up inside the park for two days.

 In his affidavit, Palisa said at around 7:45 a.m. on 1 March Friday, several male personnel of Taguig TMO suddenly arrived in front of the park and introduced themselves as personnel of the Taguig LGU.

They then chained and padlocked the gate and blocked all entrances of the park while Palisa and his co-employees were still inside. He said the men warned them not to attempt to get out while prohibiting anyone else from entering the park.

Salvador G. Mercado, a Makati employee assigned to the Garbage Section, DES Solid Waste Management Division, complained of being illegally detained for one day at the Makati Park Amphitheater.

Mercado attested that on 2 March Saturday at around 6:45 a.m., several men who introduced themselves as employees of Taguig LGU arrived in front of the amphitheater, and immediately chained and padlocked the gate. Mercado said the men told them they locked them up because the park did not have a permit from Taguig City, and he and his co-workers were forced into submission out of fear.

The third complainant, a female employee of the Youth and Sports Development Department of Makati, reported an incident that happened on 3 March, Sunday at the Makati Aqua Sports Arena where she is assigned. She handles the supervision of activities in the facility, including swimming lessons as part of PE (Physical Education) subjects of University of Makati students.

Ryalyn B. Almazar recounted that at around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, a patrol vehicle with plate no. 0301-1800888 and bearing the logo of Taguig City pulled up in front of the gate of MASA.

She said that on board the vehicle were Taguig LGU employees. At that time, there were also several men wearing vests with the Taguig logo and some wearing polo shirts with logo milling outside the facility.

Almazar said that at around 7 a.m., men in civilian attire, with no IDs and wearing dark shades and scarves covering their faces, accompanied by some uniformed Taguig personnel, suddenly approached the gate of MASA and removed the tarpaulin installed earlier by Makati City.

They then replaced it with a tarpaulin they brought with them, giving no explanations and did not show any document, she said. Almazar later learned that the tarpaulin stated a closure order from Taguig on the basis that the facility had no business permit.