A top ranking official of the Department of Justice’s National Prosecution Service on Friday said that criminal charges filed before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court against the former United States diplomat cannot proceed until he is presented to the court.
Prosecutor General Benedicto A. Malcontento, head of the NPS, stressed that the cases against Dean Edward Chevez cannot proceed until he is arrested or extradited.
Cheves has been charged by the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office with violations of the Child Abuse Law and Child Pornography Law for sexually abusing a 16-year-old Filipina and possessing pornographic materials while stationed at the US Embassy in Manila.
Last August 3, Cheves was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia in the US for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and possession of pornography.
Since Cheves is in the US, Malcontento said the prosecution is studying what its next steps will be.
“We will discuss it,” he stressed.
Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar, the undersecretary-in-charge of the Inter-Agency Task Force Against Trafficking (IACAT), said the government is working on getting Cheves extradited.
Early this week, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said the DOJ and the Department of Foreign Affairs ( have been discussing “the proper course of action, considering that Mr. Cheves is also facing criminal charges in the US for the same acts under US laws.”
Guevarra added that the case before the Pasay City RTC did not prompt the indictment of Cheves in the US.
“The US authorities quietly conducted their own separate investigation here,” he said.
Reports showed that Cheves was caught at his embassy residence in the Philippines with cellular phone videos he took himself engaging in sexual acts with a 16-year-old Filipina he met online.
