Graft raps vs PEA whistle-blower set a bad precedent — Lawyer

Whistle blowing can land you in jail.

The inclusion of former Public Estates Authority board director Sulficio Tagud Jr. in graft charges filed against PEA officials for the alleged overpricing of the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB) road project is a "dangerous precedent," according to civil society group E-Just lawyer Leonard De Vera.

"It makes no sense," De Vera, Tagud’s personal lawyer, said in a phone interview.

The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC), he added, "is sending a fearsome message to future whistle-blowers – don’t expose scams or you (will) go to jail. They have no choice but to keep quiet about the anomalies they know."

Aside from being Tagud’s lawyer, De Vera is also the spokesman for a group of lawyers handling plunder charges filed by Tagud before the Office of the Ombudsman against his former colleagues at PEA. Other complainants in the plunder case are 15 non-government organizations.

This observation was shared by Public Interest Law Center lawyer Rachel Pastores, Tagud’s lead counsel, who said, "The timing of Tagud’s inclusion in the charge sheet is suspicious because Tagud and the citizen’s groups who are his co-complainants in the plunder case pending before the Ombudsman are just about to implead presidential legal counsel Avelino Cruz in the criminal case."

She added that the administrative case filed by PAGC as complainant, which it will also hear and decide upon, is an indication that Rama is "seriously befuddled" about the powers and functions of the PAGC.

"The only explanation for Rama’s behavior is that he is ingratiating himself with the President and bullying Tagud into silence. President Arroyo would like to keep the investigation of the PEA scam under her control because of the involvement of Malacañang officials in the scam," Pastores said.

De Vera said there is no evidence against his client – no "rhyme or reason" for Tagud to be included in the charges earlier filed by the PAGC.

"Doesn’t (PAGC chairman Dario Rama) read the newspapers that it was Tagud who emphatically exposed the scam?" he said. "There was no record that Mr. Tagud, during the board meetings, voted (for the approval) of the price increases being asked by the contractor."

De Vera noted that it was Tagud who asked the board not to pay contractor JD Legaspi Construction (JDLC) because he noticed the overpricing of the road project.

He and other lawyers handling the case "expected that PAGC would find prima facie evidence" in the complaint filed against the PEA board members, led by chairman Ernest Villareal.

"It’s not difficult to find prima facie evidence because documents would prove that the contract was inflated or overpriced," De Vera said.