Report: Prosecutor to respect DOJ chief's decision to pull him out

Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco has no hard feelings on the decision by Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales to pull him out of the Burgos case, according to media reports Thursday.

Velasco said he respects the decision of the DOJ chief secretary and added there are many competent government prosecutors who can do his work.  Gonzalez yesterday ordered the inhibition of Velasco from the ongoing investigation into the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos.

Velasco’s inhibition from the probe came two days after he ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to summon within 10 days five members of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) and a certain “TL” who were tagged by an informant as suspects in the Burgos abduction.

“He is being relieved of his task at the case. I think Velasco was just excited to get into the news. He did not clear that with me. This has bad implications,” Gonzalez said, referring to Velasco’s act of revealing the names of the suspects in a press conference.