Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s office is on a roll. However, what the Department of Justice churns out does not make people confident that justice is being administered.
In a shocking move, DoJ Assistant Prosecutors Aristotle Reyes and Michael Humarang dropped the charges of narcotics trade against Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim, Lovely Impal and 19 others allegedly due to lack of evidence. In a 20 December 2017 resolution that media got hold of on 12 March 2018, the DoJ dismissed the case which the assistant prosecutors described as weak.
Peter Lim was named by President Rodrigo Duterte as part of the drug triad in charge of the Visayas Region. The triad was said to also involve Peter Co and Herbert Colangco who are both detained in the New Bilibid Prison. Lim has been involved in drug-related cases and also faced congressional inquiry on illegal drug trade in 2006. Lim is said to be a “kumpadre” of Duterte.
On the other hand, Kerwin Espinosa appeared in the Senate hearing on illegal drug trade in November of 2016. There, he confessed to being a drug lord operating in Eastern Visayas. Espinosa detailed his operations including how much he was earning and paying people in protection money so his business would not be hampered. He alleged that he gave Senator Leila de Lima (then the Justice secretary) a total of P8 million as his contribution to De Lima’s senatorial campaign in the 2016 elections. Although Espinosa claimed to have “met” De Lima once in Baguio City late in 2015 (though they did not speak with each other), he said he gave the money in several installments to Ronnie Dayan, De Lima’s former boyfriend.
It will be remembered that at that time, De Lima was being hounded by Secretary Aguirre and other Duterte allies, allegedly for drug-related crimes. De Lima has been arrested and put to jail in February 2017. The Senator stays in jail and has yet to be arraigned.
During his testimony, Espinosa also tagged his co-accused, Lovely Impal, as his supplier of illegal drugs.
The prosecutors involved in the Espinosa and Lim cases blamed the Philippine National Police for submitting weak cases. The PNP only had one witness, Marcelo Adorco, whose three statements were riddled with inconsistencies.
Curiously, Kerwin Espinosa’s confessions in the Senate were not submitted by PNP, the prosecutors claimed. PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, on the other hand, was saying that the DoJ should have informed the PNP that the cases were weak.
The dropping of the cases resulted in a big backlash from the Filipino people. Not a few were scandalized that the case was dropped despite Espinosa’s admission of being a drug lord.
President Duterte was reported to have been furious about the matter to the point of threatening the Justice Secretary if indeed Espinosa and the others are set free. In response, Secretary Aguirre has formed a panel to look into possible offenses committed by the prosecution.
It should be noted that Assistant Prosecutor Aristotle Reyes with another prosecutor (Humarang) also handled, and in November 2017, cleared customs officials of any liability in the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling case. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency filed a motion for reconsideration but this was also junked last Jan. 24.
People are intrigued by all these coincidences especially since Reyes was promoted by President Duterte as Regional Trial Court judge about a month after he started handling Espinosa’s and Lim’s cases. He, however, only took his oath of office as RTC judge on 2 February 2018.
Why did the PNP not include Espinosa’s Senate testimony, particularly his confession to being a drug lord in the complaint they submitted to the prosecutors? Why did the prosecutors not warn the PNP of the weak case?
Why did President Duterte promote Reyes in September 2017, about two months before Reyes dropped the case of the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling involving Bureau of Customs officials? Why did Reyes only take his oath as RTC judge last February, or about a month and a half after the cases against Espinosa, Lim, et al were dropped?
Another controversial and shocking move by the DoJ involves Janet Lim-Napoles, the principal suspect in the P10-billion scam involving Priority Development Assistance Fund, better known as pork barrel funds. The PDAF scandal exposed how monies allocated to legislators for their pet projects for their constituents were instead funneled to the coffers of fake non-government organizations of Napoles. This scam is said to have been put together and implemented by Napoles involving 12 former lawmakers. This has resulted in the imprisonment of former senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, and Jinggoy Estrada.
Napoles, by virtue of a DoJ decision, is now provisionally covered under the government’s Witness Protection Security and Benefit Program. This DoJ issuance was released and made effective on the same day, 27 February 2018. This is a program that encourages a person who has witnessed or has knowledge of the commission of a crime to testify before a court of law by protecting the person from revenge and economic dislocation.
However, it is common knowledge that the Witness Protection Program cannot be availed of by principal suspects like Napoles. It is quite interesting therefore that since May 2017, Secretary Aguirre has been issuing statements about the possibility of turning Napoles into a state witness. Now this is becoming a reality.
Enrile is now out of jail because of his age and frail health. However, news have it that he is joining the prosecution panel against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, if or when the impeachment trial commences. Is Enrile now in good health? What gives?
If Napoles indeed becomes a state witness, whom will she testify against? Will it be former President Benigno Aquino III and former Budget secretary Florencio Abad? With the Napoles development, are we supposed to think that those in jail due to the pork scam will, like Espinosa and Lim, also eventually go free?
Really, has the Department of Justice turned into the Department of Injustice? The Filipino people do not deserve this.
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