By MANUEL “Boy” MEJORADA

A local businessman yesterday filed a complaint seeking the disbarment of City Councilor Plaridel C. Nava for numerous alleged violations of the Cannons of Professional Ethics for members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

In a two-page complaint addressed to Supreme Court Administrator Midas Marquez, Rene Hierro said Nava should be removed from the list of lawyers because he committed acts constituting conflict of interest, infidelity to him as client, breach of confidentiality and withdrawing his legal services without his consent.

Hierro also accused Nava of keeping an adulterous relationship with his estranged wife, Annalyn Hierro, and even sired a daughter with her as a result.

Hierro said he engaged the services of Nava sometime in 2009 as his lawyer. Nava represented him in at least eight criminal cases before various salas of the Municipal Trial Court in the Cities (MTCC) and Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Iloilo City.

While these cases in which Nava was his counsel were pending, the city councilor “accepted to act as lawyer of my wife, Annalyn Hierro and on October 21, 2011 filed a petition for violation of R.A. 9262, or for Protection Order” against him, Hierro said.

“The aforesaid Atty. Plaridel Nava not only acted in conflict of the interest and against the undersigned complainant but in his aforesaid petition he also stated … that respondent’s (Hierro) history of violence can be gleaned from the following criminal cases he is presently facing in court which were filed by third persons,” Hierro stated.

Hierro listed the very same cases which Nava was handling as his lawyer in support of that statement in the petition.

“It clearly appears in the aforesaid petition that my own lawyer Atty. Plaridel Nava was also handling cases filed against me,” Hierro said.

Worse, Nava used the affidavits of the complainants in these cases to support the petition “for purposes of obtaining a (sic) unfavorable judgment against me and against my interest before a court in said civil case”, he added.

Hierro revealed that on Oct. 14, 2011, his wife Annalyn abandoned their home.

Hierro attached the transcript of stenographic notes showing that when he took the witness stand in this civil case filed by Annalyn, he had revealed before the court the said relationship of Atty. Plaridel Nava and his wife Annalyn Hierro.

Hierro added that in one criminal case against him before the MTCC for grave threats, Nava withdrew his appearance and abandoned him as client without informing him. Nava also did not present witnesses in his behalf in that trial, he said.

Because of this, Hierro said he was convicted “without being able to present my defense,” he said.

BOTCHED AMBUSH

Meanwhile, a controversial policeman tagged as the close-in bodyguard of Councilor Nava and alleged “executor” of several big crimes in Iloilo had carried out the botched ambush of Pali, Mandurriao ex-barangay chief Ramonito Gratis on June 24, 2011.

This was the latest revelation of Mercedes “Gingging” Nava, estranged first cousin of Plaridel, as she provided more details about the alleged criminal activities of the group that has been labeled as the “3 in 1 Bugkos-bugkos Group”.

In an interview in the “Kapehan sa Bali” yesterday, she was present when SPO1 Rex de los Reyes made known his plan to kill Gratis two or three days before the ambush to Plaridel at the councilor’s office in the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

“Sobra na gid ni si Gratis… tumbahon ko na ni sya (Gratis has gone too far… I will knock hiim down),” Mercedes quoted de los Reyes as telling Plaridel. The policeman apparently bore a heavy grudge on Gratis, she said.

Upon hearing this, Plaridel simply said: “Bahala ka kon ano gusto mo… tutal ako man gihapon abogado mo (Do whatever you want. After all I am your lawyer).”

The night before the ambush, Mercedes said de los Reyes and Gilbert “Ka Rambo” Demonteverde stayed over at their “hideout” in NHA Mandurriao, which is proximate to where Gratis was living.

This narration of Mercedes coincided with the allegations of Gratis when he filed an attempted murder case against de los Reyes before the Iloilo Regional Trial Court. No date has been set for the arraignment, but Gratis told The News Today he has received a copy of the resolution of the City Prosecutor’s Office in finding probable cause.

Gratis said that in the early morning of June 24, he and his wife drove their Sportivo SUV to bring their child to school. As they reached the Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue, his wife noticed that a motorcycle seemed to be trailing them and told him about it, he said.

“I noticed that when I sped up the car, the motorcycle would also increase its speed,” Gratis said. “When I slowed down, the motorcycle also slowed down.”

Gratis said he changed his route and passed through the E. Lopez St. in Jaro in going to the city proper. Along the way, the motorcycle vanished from sight, he said.

After about two hours, Gratis and his wife were approaching the Western Visayas Medical Center on their way home when his wife saw the motorcycle again on their tail, he said.

“As we neared the DOH (Department of Health) regional office, I noticed the backrider in the motorcycle draw what appeared to be an Ingram machine pistol, so I stepped on the gas,” Gratis said.

Gratis said he heard a single shot. The bullet zipped through the glass window and nicked him in the ear. The windshield also shattered, causing injuries to his face and head, he said.

But he was unarmed and couldn’t fire back, he said.

Gratis said he had a chance to look at the side mirror and saw the gunman trying to eject a jammed bullet from the weapon. He immediately drove toward the barangay hall of Pali to seek help, he said.

“My face and head were bloodied, and I thought I was hit by grenade shrapnel,” he said.

Gratis said he went to the Mandurriao police station after a lapse of about 30 minutes to make sure his attackers weren’t waiting for him to finish him off.

Gratis said the gunman wasn’t wearing a helmet and he recognized him as de los Reyes. “There’s no mistaking about it, because he was only about two meters away from me,” he said.

De los Reyes was wearing a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses, he said.

Gratis said he was glad that Mercedes came out with this revelation to support his own criminal complaint against de los Reyes.

The June 24, 2011 attack wasn’t the first instance de los Reyes had made an attempt on his life, Gratis said.

He told TNT that sometime in 1998, de los Reyes had also lobbed a hand grenade at his vehicle which was parked outside his residence. The explosion totally wrecked his vehicle, he said.

Then, on June 22, 2011, Gratis said de los Reyes also threw a hand grenade into his car as he was driving his child to school. Luckily, it did not explode, he said.

Two days later, the attack with the use of an Ingram machine pistol took place, he said.

“I am fortunate because the weapon jammed after one shot,” he said. “Had it not, I would have been killed along with my wife,” he added.

The misfiring of the Ingram machine pistol is the cause of the injury that left the left eye of de los Reyes blind, Mercedes said.

De los Reyes was originally taken to the WVMC which was just a few meters away for treatment but was transferred to the Iloilo Doctors Hospital on orders of Plaridel, Mercedes said.

The cover story that was circulated was that de los Reyes was hurt in a motorcycle accident on the Indian Trail, a road that connects the Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue to the NHA project in Mandurriao.

“I visited Rex at his hospital bed the next day or two along with my friend, Joy Legarda,” Mercedes said.*