Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the DOJ will look into the possibility of filing perjury and obstruction of justice charges against witnesses who later refuse to testify following a raid on the compound of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) in Las Piñas last month.
The Justice chief also criticized the Philippine National Police (PNP) raid for having been done without coordination with the DOJ and for supposedly lacking sufficient bases and evidence.
The PNP reportedly admitted that one of the challenges in bringing cases in court against five Chinese suspects was the refusal of witnesses to later testify against those behind the online scam operations once were rescued, despite initially providing information to the court that issued the search warrants.
“The problem is once they’re okay, their perception of danger, their fear went away, so they no longer wanted to testify. Under our laws, that’s perjury and obstruction of justice,” Remulla, quoted by ABS-CBN News, said.
Remulla said the witnesses’ refusal to testify hampers the prosecution of cases, as in the case in Las Piñas where they had to order the release of the said Chinese suspects while they undergo preliminary investigation.
Quoted by ABS-CBN News, Remulla further said: “the problem there is if a witness disappears, what will the prosecutor do? They release for further investigation. We will take to prosecutors that if witnesses agree to testify and they signed something, they should be held accountable.”
“The problem is you complained, there’s a case, but once you went home, you no longer wanted to testify. So everything is left hanging,” he added.
He said that this has happened several times in the past, citing a previous directive for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to desist from its POGO operations.
The DOJ recently issued a department circular that requires prosecutors and law enforcers to coordinate any operation regarding certain cases such as human trafficking. But this was not supposedly followed in the Las Piñas raid.
Authorities said out of the 2,000 individuals “rescued” in the June 26 raid in Las Piñas, around 1,000 are still in the POGO facility.
“It’s a DOJ policy that we stop these rescues followed by release, as if nothing happened. That’s too costly. We are feeding them every day, P1,000 people, using government funds. We should all be accountable for that” he said.
Meanwhile, the 5 Chinese suspects are facing possible non-bailable human trafficking charges.
Their lawyer however complained that they are still in the Las Piñas POGO compound, despite the release order dated July 3 issued by the
DOJ panel of prosecutors allowing their release pending the conduct of the preliminary investigation.
Remulla said he has yet to receive information on this matter but will look into the issue.
