FORMER senator Leila de De Lima yesterday pushed for the investigation of Vitaliano Aguirre II and Menardo Guevarra, former secretaries of the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the previous administration, for using convicts as witnesses to boost the drug cases filed against her.
De Lima stressed the Ombudsman should now act on her 2018 administrative case accusing Aguirre and Guevarra of gross neglect of duty, grave misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service after the Court of Appeals (CA) reversed the anti-graft body’s decision to junk her complaint.
“The wheels of justice continue to turn… I filed the complaint with the Ombudsman in Oct. 2018 and appealed the Ombudsman decision dismissing my complaint in Nov. 2020 with the CA, and the following month with the SC (Supreme Court). With the reversal of the Ombudsman dismissal by the CA, I expect the Ombudsman to now conduct a full investigation of both Aguirre and Guevarra,” De Lima said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Sunday.
She added: “At the very least… require Guevarra to answer the administrative aspect of the case and defend his role in propping up criminal convicts as state witnesses even if they are disqualified from being granted immunity under the law.”
Aguirre is now serving as one a commissioner in the National Police Commission (Napolcom) while Guevarra is the current Solicitor General.
De Lima reiterated that the move of the DOJ during Aguirre’s incumbency to use convicts as witnesses against her violated Section 10 of Republic Act 6981, or the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act (WPSBA), which prohibits individuals convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude from admission to the Witness Protection Program and be made as witnesses in government cases.
The appellate court, in a ruling dated November 21, ordered the Ombudsman to investigate Aguirre and Guevarra for granting state witness status and immunity to convicted criminals in violation of the witness protection law.
The decision was in relation to De Lima’s administrative complaints filed in October 2018 accusing Aguirre and Guevarra of gross neglect of duty, grave misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
The Ombudsman, in 2019 and 2020, dismissed the administrative complaints, saying there was no proof that the witnesses, at the time, were enjoying benefits under the WPSBP as state witnesses. It cited the refusal of Guevarra, who was then the DOJ chief, to issue a certification showing the inclusion of the PDLs to the program.
Saying that the Ombudsman dismissed the cases “without even conducting an investigation or asking them (Aguirre and Guevarra) to answer the complaint,” De Lima elevated the administrative complaint to the CA, which agreed with her arguments and reversed the Ombudsman’s decisions.
The CA Special 17th Division said the Ombudsman’s decision were “void for lack of due process.”
“As can be gleaned from the foregoing disquisition, there was no valid reason for the Ombudsman to have refused to conduct an investigation on the administrative charges filed by petitioner against respondent. Its unjustified refusal is contrary to its mandate under the law, and cannot be tolerated,” read the CA decision, which was penned by Associate Justice Raymond Reynor Lauigan with the concurrence of Associate Justices Eleuterio Bathan and Apolinario Bruselas Jr.
“In dismissing the administrative complaint outright based on inapplicable exceptions under Section 20 of Republic Act (RA) No. 6770, the Ombudsman clearly deviated from its own rules of procedure, which is a violation of procedural due process,” the CA added.
“This case is remanded to the Office of the Ombudsman for appropriate action,” it also said.
INMATES
Last week, seven inmates —German Agojo, Jaime Patcho, Tomas Donina, Wu Tuan Yuan alias Peter Co, Jerry Pepino, Engelberto Duran, and Hans Anton Tan — sought permission from Muntinlupa trial court Branch 206 Presiding Judge Gener Gito that they be allowed to recant their testimonies against De Lima.
They also expressed their “sincerest apologies” to the former senator for their false allegations.
Last month, two other Bilibid inmates — Nonito Arile and Rodolfo Magleo — also informed the court of their desire to retract their testimonies against the former DOJ secretary.
With this development, the prosecution is now left with only five inmate-witnesses against De Lima, namely Noel Martinez, Renante Diaz, Joel Capones, Jojo Baligad, and Herbert Colanggo.
The drug cases filed against De Lima were anchored on the testimonies of the felons.
In 2021, the Muntinlupa trial court junked one of the three drug charges against the former lawmaker. A year later, she was also acquitted of a second drug charge.
On November 13, Gito allowed De Lima to post bail in her remaining drug case, allowing the latter to finally leave the Camp Crame detention center where she was detained for almost seven years.
In allowing De Lima’s temporary liberty, Gito cited the prosecution’s lack of substantial evidence to sufficiently establish her guilt.