MANILA, MARCH 11, 2011 (STAR) By Aurea Calica – The Office of the President (OP) is set to issue a show cause order for the five special prosecutors to explain the plea bargaining agreement with former military comptroller Carlos Garcia, who was originally charged with plunder.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing at Malacañang yesterday that the OP has jurisdiction over the special prosecutors under the Ombudsman Act, even as he assured them of due process.
In Singapore, President Aquino said his government will adopt a so-called Al Capone policy and will hold accountable officials of the Office of the Ombudsman who may have bungled the case.
"I directed the Office of the Solicitor General… the important thing is not the recovery of the funds, although we would want to get the funds back. But the principal activity should be to make sure that these guys wind up in jail... and I don't care if it is because of what he plundered or the taxes that he did not pay," the President said.
Lacierda said they will ask the prosecutors to explain and "depending on what will be required, provided that we accord them substantive and procedural due process, we will come out with a resolution one way or the other."
He did not give a timetable for the process, but promised to "make it as expeditious as possible, giving due regard to due process to the respondents."
The OP has received the resolution of the House committee on justice chaired by Iloilo Rep. Neil Tupas Jr. recommending the dismissal of Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras-Sulit of the Office of the Ombudsman and the filing of appropriate charges against four other prosecutors for entering into an irregular plea bargain agreement with Garcia.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee is also recommending the ouster of and filing of charges against Sulit for betrayal of public trust in connection with the plea bargaining agreement.
"The legal authority under the Ombudsman Act is that the Office of the President has disciplinary jurisdiction over the special prosecutors and therefore, it is in our province that we will determine the conduct of the special prosecutors," he said.
He added that the OP "treated" the House resolution and the Senate's findings as a complaint and that it would wait for a copy of the Blue Ribbon committee report.
Lacierda said the Ombudsman Act also gave the OP the "powers to decide on the proper sanction as we see fit."
'Leave it to Merci'
As to the impeachment proceedings that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez is set to face, Lacierda and Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said it would be entirely up to her if she would step down or not.
"I would leave that to the Ombudsman. She's the one affected here and when it comes to the impeachment (per se), we would not have much a say on it. Once (the impeachment complaints) are elevated to the Senate, (the senators) will be the ones to decide on them. I don't want to preempt her or speculate on what she wants to do... She knows how difficult the situation is right now, so let's leave it at that," Lacierda said.
Carandang said the Ombudsman's resignation would spare the nation the trauma of having to go through a painful impeachment process.
"(Then US) President (Richard) Nixon resigned in 1974 precisely to avoid dragging the country through a very contentious impeachment process. So again, it would be up to Ombudsman Gutierrez, but that (resignation) would certainly be much less painful to the country than an impeachment," he said.
Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and a strong possibility of a conviction in the Senate over the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned from the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974.
His successor, then Vice President Gerald Ford, later issued a pardon to Nixon.
Lacierda would not comment on whether senators should stop making pronouncements about Gutierrez.
But he said he could not tell whether the senators who had issued statements about Gutierrez and her impeachment case should inhibit themselves from the trial in case the complaints are elevated to the Senate.
"I think they have promised objectivity. They have promised a fair trial for Ombudsman Gutierrez in the event that the articles of impeachment are filed before the Senate," Lacierda said.
He said they could understand if the senators would tackle the impeachment complaints only in May or after the recess because of lack of time.
"I don't think they will be able to convene a Senate impeachment court before recess," Lacierda said, but added that it would also be up to the Senate if there would be a special session for the impeachment.
He also declined to say whether the Palace had the numbers to get the impeachment of Gutierrez going in the Senate.
All eyes on Lacierda
Meanwhile, administration and opposition lawmakers hit Lacierda for declaring on Wednesday that the possible ouster of Gutierrez would pave the way for the criminal prosecution of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other officials of her administration.
"I don't think that's (Lacierda's statement) is fair," Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said in a telephone interview. "We have to comply with the basic requirement on rules of evidence."
"The new Ombudsman, if ever there would be one, should decide based on evidence. That is also my expectation as a lawyer," he said, adding that "there should be no prejudgment of any case."
Barzaga is one of the likely prosecutors in the event that Gutierrez's impeachment case goes on trial in the Senate.
Mrs. Arroyo's spokesperson, Ma. Elena Bautista-Horn, could not be reached for comment. However, Ang Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo scored Malacañang for its continued efforts to hit his mother.
He said the rules of evidence determine the guilt or innocence of an accused person "and not public perception, which can be swayed through propaganda tactics, which is the expertise of this administration."
"As long as there are concrete evidence against former president GMA, they can file cases against her anytime, whoever sits as Ombudsman," he said.
House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the filing of charges against Mrs. Arroyo and other officials of the past administration "does not depend on the ouster of the Ombudsman in an impeachment proceeding which could take time."
"Proper cases can be filed anytime before the Ombudsman and/or Department of Justice which are the duly constituted bodies with appropriate prosecutorial jurisdiction," Lagman said.
Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay said no one in the Aquino administration is being prevented from filing cases against Mrs. Arroyo before the Office of the Ombudsman.
"What is there to investigate if nothing has been filed there (Ombudsman) or even in the Department of Justice? P-Noy can use his clout to do it. Why doesn't he?" Magsaysay said. - With Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero
SENATE BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE WANTS SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FIRED By Christina Mendez
(STAR) The Senate Blue Ribbon committee is recommending the filing of charges against Special State Prosecutor Wendell Barreras-Sulit for betrayal of public trust in connection with the plea bargaining agreement forged with former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.
The Blue Ribbon's recommendation is aimed at Sulit's ouster as special prosecutor, since betrayal of public trust is a serious offense.
"The Office of the Special Prosecutor betrayed public trust by entering into the Garcia plea bargaining agreement. There was betrayal of public trust through breach of official duty," a portion of the draft of the Blue Ribbon committee's findings declared.
The 65-page report also recommended that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez be "held accountable for non-feasance."
"Whether or not the laws that hold the Ombudsman and Office of the Special Prosecutor accountable are sufficient, who will 'Guard the Guardians?'" the report read.
Because of Gutierrez's stance, the Blue Ribbon is also recommending for the House of Representatives to submit to the Senate the articles of impeachment against Gutierrez at the soonest time possible.
Nine senators have signed the partial report of the Blue Ribbon committee which investigated the questionable agreement and the massive corruption in the military.
Blue Ribbon chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III confirmed that he now has a majority of senators who have concurred with the recommendation that Sulit be cited for betrayal of public trust and to have the Ombudsman held accountable for the same.
Guingona refused to provide details of the report pending his formal press conference today at the Senate.
"It's being routed… I have the majority. Nine is the majority and I have nine (signatures)," he said.
Guingona said his partial report does not cover the liabilities of former AFP comptroller Jacinto Ligot and other military officers who were tagged by whistle-blower former budget officer Col. George Rabusa in the multi-million cash conversion at the AFP.
The committee report also comes at a time when the House of Representatives is about to vote on the impeachment case against Gutierrez before plenary next week and after President Aquino reportedly gave marching orders to the Liberal Party congressmen to vote in favor of her impeachment.
Guingona is Aquino's ally in the Liberal Party.
Prosecutorial negligence
In past hearings, senators have repeatedly hit Gutierrez and Sulit over the lopsided plea bargaining agreement with Garcia.
Another LP stalwart, Sen. Franklin Drilon, had scored Gutierrez and Sulit for lacking delicadeza as they have ignored calls for them to resign from their posts.
He assailed Gutierrez and Sulit for what he saw as a "consistent pattern of covering up" the transactions that could have expanded the filing of graft charges against the two former comptrollers of the Armed Forces.
Drilon had also recommended that the special prosecutors be charged for graft.
He said that the calls for resignation have fallen on deaf ears since the Ombudsman and the special prosecutors have insisted in past Senate hearings that they have been doing their job in getting Garcia to agree with the plea bargain and in pursuing the forfeiture case against Ligot.
Ligot, comptroller during the time of the late Defense secretary Angelo Reyes, had allegedly amassed about P740 million in dollar and peso deposits but he only has a forfeiture case pending before the Sandiganbayan.
Ligot's successor, Garcia, was able to strike a plea bargaining agreement with the government special prosecutors on a plunder charge that was reduced to direct bribery, which paved the way for him to be freed on bail.
Garcia served as AFP comptroller for about four years during the terms of former AFP chiefs Diomedio Villanueva, Roy Cimatu and Efren Abu, who occupied the top military post courtesy of the revolving door policy of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Drilon said the denials of Sulit in one of the Senate hearings that they received the report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council about Ligot's huge bank accounts already reveal a conspiracy to cover up their misdeeds, a seeming pattern that emerged in the Senate hearings.
In Garcia's case, the Ombudsman and special prosecutors opted to strike a plea bargain agreement which allowed Garcia to merely return about half of the P300 million in accounts and properties to the government rather than recover all his alleged ill-gotten wealth mentioned in the plunder case.
Review rules
In light of recent developments, Drilon has asked the Commission on Appointments to review its rules in order to improve the process of looking into the fitness and integrity of appointees of the President.
Admitting that there were lapses by the CA in the past, particularly when Ligot and Garcia's promotions were confirmed, Drilon said that there must be some changes made in the practices of the commission so that the nominees are subjected to closer scrutiny.
"We have, to a certain extent, failed in our duty to check on the qualification and fitness of the nominees that we examine in the CA, not only in the Armed Forces but likewise in the civilian sector of our government, including the constitutional agencies," Drilon said.
Drilon noted that the practice in the CA, even during the years when he was its chairman, was that questions about the integrity of the appointees were raised primarily when there were individuals challenging the appointments of the President.
"You cannot help but come to the question: what were we doing all this time? There must have been laxity, I must admit. I was in the CA for the past 13 years, almost half of which I was chairman and I must admit that the process of examining the nominees' fitness and qualification can stand improvement," Drilon said.
Drilon said that at the very least, the CA secretariat should be able to look into the cases filed against the appointees by the Office of the Ombudsman and use the evidence presented there as part of the process of evaluating the fitness and qualification of a candidate.
Meanwhile, the CA confirmed yesterday the promotion of 90 officers of the AFP, with ranks ranging from colonel to lieutenant general. – With Marvin Sy
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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