Aguirre: Recommendation to suspend DOJ prosecutors 'premature'
March 28, 2018 | 10:16am
Earlier, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II stressed that alleged drug lords Peter Lim and self-confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa are not yet off the hook as the case is not for review at his office.
Miguel de Guzman / The STAR
MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission’s complaint against state prosecutors over the dismissal of raps against Kerwin Espinosa is baseless, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said on Wednesday.
In a message to reporters, Aguirre said: “The complaint is without basis because they do not know the workings and procedure of the [Department of Justice] when conducting preliminary investigation.”
On Tuesday, the PACC sought the suspension of Assistant State Prosecutor Michael John Humarang, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rassendell Rex Gingyon and Acting Prosecutor-General Jorge Catalan.
They said that the suspension will prevent the prosecutors from having “the power to keep documents and exercise influence” while they are subjected to probe by the National Bureau of Investigation.
The PACC also recommended a lifestyle check on Lucena City Judge Aristotle Reyes, the former assistant state prosecutor who penned the resolution.
The DOJ is under fire after news broke out that Humarang and Reyes dismissed the drug raps against Espinosa, Peter Co, Peter Lim and dozen others due to the “inconsistent testimonies” of the police’s sole witness, Marcelo Adorco.
Aguirre has already created a new panel of prosecutors to probe the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s complaint against the respondents.
‘Case against respondents not yet final’
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, Humarang and Reyes stressed that Espinosa and his co-respondents are not yet absolved of criminal complaints as the probe is still ongoing.
“Given that the case under consideration has not yet attained finality, the recommendation of the PACC is somehow still premature,” they added.
They also maintained that their resolution, which drew criticism, “was based only on the evidence presented to us.”
Aguirre and the prosecutors earlier said that the PNP-CIDG filed a weak complaint. CIDG chief Director Roel Obusan admitted that they did not attach the confession of Espinosa in their complaint.
“We stress that we cannot just rely on the inconsistent and contradictory statements of complainant’s lone witness,” they said, adding: “Additional and credible evidence should have been submitted by the complainant to strengthen its case and justify the filing of criminal charges against the respondents in court.”
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