Source: The Daily Tribune
Three separate complaints for plunder were filed against three senators and a number of public employees and non-government organization (NGO) officers allegedly involved in the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.
The Field Investigation Office (FIO) filed the complaints of plunder, punishable under Republic Act (RA) No. 7080, as amended, and for violation of Section 3(e) of RA No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and others.
Certain public respondents also face administrative charges of Serious Dishonesty, Grave Misconduct and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service.
It was not clear whether the Ombudsman’s Office included in its plunder raps several heads of the implementing agencies such as Cabinet secretaries.
Reacting to the reported filing of plunder charges by the Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Senator Estrada denounced the reported filing of a second plunder charge as another form of political persecution. Minority Leader Enrile and Senator Revilla Jr. and Senator Estrada are ready to disprove the allegations leveled against them by their accusers before the court.
“I’m ready to case the case,” Enrile said in an interview with reporters, adding that he will not even share the observation of some quarters on the filing of the latest case as a political harassment.
“(They’ve charged us) for what? From what my lawyer gathered, they just simply put a docket on the old charges. I do not know. For me, I’m ready to face the case. I have studied for this,” he said, reacting to reports on the complaint lodged by the FIO of the Office of the Ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan on the three senators’ alleged involvement in the misuse of their respective PDAF allocation.
Revilla’s counsel, Joel Bodegon, said the senator is also ready to answer the charges against him and will not be shying away from any investigation.
“As he stated from the beginning, he is ready to face whatever charge or charges are filed against him to clear his name. In fact, he was the first to file a case against those who confessed to having participated in the so-called PDAF scam: Benhur Luy and his cohorts. He is confident that justice is on his side because he is innocent of any wrongdoing,” Bodegon said.
As they have yet to be given a copy of the complaint, Revilla’s camp begged off from issuing further statements.
“Unimaginable,” was the immediate reaction given by Estrada in questioning the speedy action of the Ombudsman in acting on the complaint of the Department of Justice (DoJ) on the plunder case against them.
“Are they like ‘Superman’? The Ombudsman’s FIO for having read such voluminous documents pertaining to the pork barrel probe in just two months?” he asked.
“Unimaginable,” was the immediate reaction given by Estrada in questioning the speedy action of the Ombudsman in acting on the complaint of the Department of Justice (DoJ) on the plunder case against them.
“Are they like ‘Superman’? The Ombudsman’s FIO for having read such voluminous documents pertaining to the pork barrel probe in just two months?” he asked.
Estrada said the motives in the filing of cases are clearly political.
As to the possible administrative charges against the senators, possibly before the Senate ethics and privileges committee, the matter will probably take a while before the panel takes it up for investigation.
Senate President Franklin Drilon told reporters that the committee is yet to be constituted, much more, be assigned with its chairman.
“We will await the referral and once we have it, we will organize the ethics committee. It’s our duty to constitute that.
“I doubt that we could have it this year. As we have discussed on the caucus yesterday, we will be debating the budget, and the interpellations will terminate on Nov. 28, the approval of the third reading for it would be on the first week of December. We may not have the time. Also, the FoI (Freedom of Information) bill is on the floor. So the calendar may not allow us to tackle this referral within the year,” Drilon said.
The Office of the Ombudsman earlier stated that the administrative complaints against the three senators are to be referred to the Senate Ethics Committee which has administrative disciplinary jurisdiction over members of the Senate, for appropriate action.
The FIO was tasked to conduct an investigation into the PDAF scam in July 2013 when Ombudsman Morales motu proprio (even without a lodged complaint at that time) initiated a fact-finding investigation in response to news reports on whistleblower BenhurLuy’s exposé of a “pork barrel scam.”
Yet much earlier, Morales announced that it would take the Ombudsman’s Office a year to investigate the PDAF’s alleged plunder.
Today, Morales claims that this has been investigated as early July, motu proprio.
The case build-up was conducted in coordination with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with several FIO Teams created to expedite the investigation, it was claimed.
The FIO Teams gathered numerous documents and interviewed at least 1,500 witnesses in more than100cities and municipalities in 39 provinces all over the country.
Parts of the areas covered by the investigation were the municipalities of Dula, Javier, Babatngon in Leyte,and that of Passi, Iloilo and Llorente, Eastern Samar, which were recently ravaged by typhoon Yolanda.
FIO Assistant Ombudsman Joselito Fangon acknowledged the cooperation of the NBI,the Department of Justice (DoJ) Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Program officers, the Commission on Audit (CoA) and other members of the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council (IAAGCC), in the process of scanning through the entire pieces of evidence available nationwide.
By Angie M. Rosales and Alvin Murcia
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