MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte could have chosen someone better than his former law school classmate and frat member to serve as a commissioner for an agency with the power to probe irregularities and dismiss erring members of the national police force.
This comes after Malacañang on Monday night announced that former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II would be rejoining the Duterte administration as a commissioner of the National Police Commission (Napolcom). Several controversies hounded Aguirre's tenure at the justice department and he resigned in 2018, just two years after he was appointed.
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"I have no confidence, not the least bit, in [Aguirre]. Based on Aguirre's reputation in the positions he held and the number of people he allowed to slip away when he was still in power, I have a strong feeling that this fraternity 'brod' of the president cannot uplift the PNP," Hontiveros said in Filipino.
Aguirre also previously served as lead counsel of retired police officer Bienvenido Laud who was tagged as a member of the Davao Death Squad by other confessed members. Aguirre's former client is also the owner of the Laud firing range and quarry in Davao City where many Davao Death Squad victims were allegedly killed and buried.
Although bones were found at the site, Aguirre in 2016 claimed that "they were bodies of people who were executed during the Japanese occupation," and other skeletons dug up might even belong to animals.
READ: SC rules on DDS case: PNP can search quarry for bodies
Aguirre's track record put on blast
"I did not think that a person who apparently freed alleged drug lords, made a joke of anti-corruption laws within the Bureau of Immigration, and betrayed our borders just to enforce the Visa Upon Arrival scheme would be given a position of power again," she added in Filipino.
READ: Six controversial cases that earned Aguirre criticism
It was under Aguirre's leadership that the justice department dropped drug raps against confessed drug trader Kerwin Espinosa, Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim, inmate Peter Co and a dozen others. He also stood by the prosecutors’ resolution, which stressed that the police relied on inconsistent testimonies from Marcelo Adorco, their only witness, in filing their complaint.
The resolution drew the ire of Duterte himself who berated Aguirre for seemingly mishandling the case.
Hontiveros in October said Aguirre remains a person of interest in the Senate committee on women's probe into bribery schemes at the Bureau of Immigration, an attached agency of the justice department. Aguirre has continued to insist that there is no evidence linking him to the money-making rackets allegedly perpetrated by agents of the bureau.
"How can he make the PNP credible and efficient if he is openly interested in spreading conspiracy theories? The people's trust in the PNP may be diminished further because of this appointment," she added in Filipino.
In 2017, as the siege on Marawi was ongoing, Aguirre falsely claimed to reporters that several opposition lawmakers were somehow involved in the terrorist attack on the city. After facing blowback for the outlandish allegation, he then claimed that he was misquoted which several media groups disputed.
READ: Aguirre links opposition solons to Marawi, Resorts World | Media groups dispute Aguirre's claim he was misquoted on 'Marawi meeting'
"Again, the president could have made a more judicious choice for this role," Hontiveros said.
Meanwhile, detained Sen. Leila de Lima, quipped on Twitter: "Duterte should appoint himself to the National Solid Waste Management Commission. Magaling talaga siya mag recycle ng basura (He is good at recycling trash). #ZeroWaste"
Palace defends appointment of Aguirre
Malacañang on Tuesday reiterated that appointment to posts is "an exclusive prerogative of the president."
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque also took a swipe at De Lima, saying in Filipino during a virtual briefing: "Of course De Lima is very mad at Aguirre because he was the justice secretary when cases were filed against her."
After spending over a thousand days behind bars, De Lima last week moved for the dismissal of the second in the three drug charges she is facing citing a lack of evidence against her.
— with reports from Kristine Joy Patag and Christian Deiparine