MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has ordered the scrapping of the dismissal of charges against suspected drug lords Peter Lim and Kerwin Espinosa as he faces stinging criticism for allegedly allowing them to escape accountability.
Aguirre said the motion of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) seeking the reversal of the decision to clear Lim and Espinosa is now moot because of his directive.
“I issued an order yesterday (Monday) vacating the dismissal of the case so much so that there is no such dismissal anymore. And I ordered that the case be ordered wide open for both parties – the complainants and the respondents – to file whatever evidence they have in support of their respective position,” Aguirre said in a press briefing in Malacañang yesterday.
Aguirre, who is rumored to be on his way out of the Cabinet because of the issue, said his order would allow both the prosecution and the defense to strengthen their cases.
“The dismissal of the panel is now vacated and the case is remanded back to the new prosecutors that I have appointed. And the parties are free and required to submit all their evidence in support of their position,” he said.
The justice department had cleared Espinosa and Lim of drug charges allegedly because of weak evidence, drawing outrage from groups who claimed that the decision casts doubt on the seriousness of President Duterte’s anti-drug war.
Espinosa, the son of slain Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa, Lim and several others were accused of involvement in the illegal drug trade. Other persons who were cleared by government prosecutors were alleged New Bilibid Prison drug trafficker Peter Co, Max Miro, Ruel Malindangan, Jun Pepito, Lovely Adam Impal and 12 other individuals.
Duterte was angered by the clearing of Lim and Espinosa and threatened to put Aguirre in jail if the drug suspects get away. The CIDG has asked the justice department to reconsider its decision.
Aguirre said he has created a new panel to review the prosecutors’ resolution.
He claimed the decision to dismiss the charges against the drug suspects was leaked.
“It has not even reached the Office of the Secretary of Justice. As a matter of fact, the Motion for Reconsideration filed by the CIDG was not even resolved yet, and the Office of the (Justice) Secretary has not yet exercised his power under the automatic review,” Aguirre said.
“When it came out last March 12, I never knew anything about this case because as I have very well explained to you, the preliminary process –preliminary investigation in the DOJ – consists of two levels. The first is the National Prosecution Service level, our public prosecutors and the state prosecutors in the Department of Justice,” he added.
Aguirre admitted ordering an investigation of the prosecutors because of the public uproar over the decision. He, however, believes that “people with ill motives” are behind the criticisms against the decision.
“Many of them harbored ill feelings towards me... Will they be investigated every time they issue such decision? I understand where they are coming from,” he said.
“But they should also understand that because of the backlash caused by some people with ill-motives coupled with politics, the public had a negative perception on this issue.”
Aguirre said prosecutors are supposed to be impartial when they are conducting a preliminary investigation. He noted the panel of prosecutors has no obligation to gather evidence for parties involved.
“It is the obligation of the parties or of their respective lawyers to gather the evidence,” Aguirre said.
“It is only when these evidence are submitted to the panel, and these evidence are the ones to be considered. If these are not submitted, they won’t be considered,” he added.
Critics are assailing the panel of prosecutors for clearing Espinosa despite his admission that he is involved in the illegal drug trade. The admission, however, was not included in the evidence submitted to prosecutors.
Despite his order to nullify the dismissal of charges, Aguirre said government prosecutors are not back to zero because both parties just have to submit additional evidence.
All is not lost
Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Richard Gordon said he will not hesitate to conduct an inquiry if the DOJ fails to reverse the decision after its ongoing review of the case.
Gordon said he will wait for the review of the findings of the first panel of prosecutors that recommended the dismissal of charges against Lim, Espinosa and others.
Gordon said that if the review ends up upholding the recommendation of the first panel of prosecutors, then he would open an inquiry into the matter.
Several senators have denounced the findings of the DOJ prosecutors, particularly their failure to take into account the admission made by Espinosa during a public hearing at the Senate that he was a drug dealer.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa has admitted the CIDG filed a weak case against Espinosa, Lim and the other drug personalities.
Speaking with reporters after attending a hearing at the Senate yesterday, senior assistant state prosecutor Rassendell Gingoyon, who was the recommending officer for the panel of prosecutors, said they did everything by the book and came out with their findings based on the evidence presented to them.
Gingoyon noted the evidence submitted by the CIDG was insufficient since it was practically reliant on the affidavits submitted by a single witness, Marcelo Adorco.
“The issue here is that the DOJ cannot go out of its way to look for evidence for the complainant,” he said.
Gingoyon cited the process preventing prosecutors from proactively coordinating with either the complainants or respondents.
Since the process dictates equal protection for all, Gingoyon said that if they coordinated with the complainants, then they should have also coordinated with the respondents in the spirit of fairness.
Gingoyon said the prosecutors could not have used the admission made by Espinosa at the Senate alone as basis to file a case against him because in his counter affidavit, he denied being a drug dealer.
He said that Espinosa refuted the claims of Adorco and made no mention at all about what he said at the Senate.
As an example of what he said was the weakness of the case of the CIDG, Gingoyon noted how Adorco failed to support his claim that he was with Espinosa and Lim in Thailand from May 2014 to July 2015.
He said the CIDG showed the passport of Adorco indicating he was in Thailand during those dates, but failed to present the passports of Espinosa and Lim to back up the claim that they were all there on the same dates.
“We prosecutors are only as good as our evidence. We can’t do the duties of the complainant or the respondent,” Gingoyon said.
Chief Supt. Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of the PNP’s Drug Enforcement Group, said Espinosa gave his commitment to help in the fight against illegal drugs.
Ferro described Espinosa as remorseful when he and other anti-drug agents fetched him from Al-Nadah Jail in Abu Dhabi late in 2016.
However, Ferro admitted then the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) did not provide the CIDG a copy of the judicial confession.
He said the case against Espinosa was filed after the AIDG was deactivated.
Despite the supposed confession, the investigating panel of prosecutors junked the case against Espinosa for lack of probable cause.
The CIDG failed to use Espinosa’s confession at the Senate hearing about his illegal drug operations.
Ferro revealed that aside from his testimony at the Senate hearing, Espinosa even gave an extrajudicial confession with the AIDG.
However, the AIDG was deactivated after some of its officials were linked to the murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo.
“Actually, he requested for a confession with the priest before we do the extrajudicial confession. Those are two things, one is spirituality, the other one is legal process of taking into account his confession through an extrajudicial confession,” Ferro said.
He noted Espinosa could not invoke double jeopardy since the procedure was only at the prosecutor’s level and the suspect has not been arraigned.
“We could still do a remedy. We could still come up with a reopening of the case. All is not lost. I think all the remedies are available for us, the PNP and DOJ,” he added.
Ferro assured the public that the PNP, through the CIDG and the DEG, are ready for the reopening of Espinosa’s case.
“We are very ready for Kerwin’s case. We are ready to bring all evidence that is in our hands,” he said. – Marvin Sy, Cecille Suerte Felipe