Justice for ex-justice chief

I first came to know former Justice Secretary Hernando "Nani" Perez when I was still a young reporter. He was among those appointed in the Cabinet of former President Corazon Aquino a few weeks after the Feb. 25,1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Perez was the first secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) during the Aquino administration.

I had a good impression of Perez when he first assumed his office at the DOTC. As a lawyer, he exuded much political savvy and is very good in public speaking, even in his delivery of extemporaneous remarks. I recall distinctly his remarks before DOTC employees on his first day in office. He was telling them his exploits as a typical tough talking Batangueño who openly spoke against the late Marcos dictatorship. He related to them a supposed incident during the tumultuous February 1986 presidential election when he was among those in the opposition poll watchers. He claimed to be at the frontlines of the human blockade at the provincial capitol trying to protect the ballots from armed men who were trying to snatch the ballot boxes away from them. When he tripped off in one of the ballot boxes, his fellow poll watchers thought he was so brave to lay down his own body and life to protect the people’s votes. All others followed suit, he said, thinking he was urging them to make the same ultimate sacrifice. Luckily, he chortled, the armed men retreated.

Obviously, Perez was trying to impress upon the DOTC rank-and-file how he got to this post because of sheer loyalty to Mrs. Aquino who appointed him there. He, however, had a short stint in the Aquino Cabinet. This was because he ran and won during the May 1987 elections as representative of his congressional district in Batangas.

But don’t ask me how Perez earned the trust and confidence of President Arroyo when she chose him to become her Justice Secretary. All I gathered about how Perez became closely associated with Mrs. Arroyo dated years back when the latter was still a Trade and Industry undersecretary during the Aquino administration and he was still in Congress as chairman of the House committee on trade matters. Thus, when the President was a Senator, she and Perez co-authored a lot of key legislations, particularly on trade and economic reform bills that were passed into law during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos.

Perez was among the first Cabinet officials appointed by the Chief Executive as soon as she took office at the end of EDSA-2 in January 2001 following the ouster of President Joseph Estrada. Barely a week into office, Perez secretly negotiated with retired Supreme Court chief justice Andres Narvasa, one of the chief legal counsels of Estrada in his impeachment trial at the Senate. Perez purportedly asked the deposed President to sign a resignation letter or else face plunder charges. Estrada himself blew the whistle on these secret negotiations by Perez who up to this day deny these things.

But the most serious accusations that Estrada leveled against Perez was the alleged "kickbacks" that the erstwhile Justice Secretary earned after giving the go-signal for the approval of the $470 million power plant deal with the Argentine firm IMPSA (Industrias Metallurgicas Perscarmona, SA). This was based on the documents signed by Perez barely two days into office at the DOJ.

The deposed President swears to high heavens that Perez "has been lying through his teeth and behind his moustache." And every time the name of the ex-Justice Secretary comes up in conversations with Estrada, the detained President would repeat every detail of who, where, when, and the what if only he acceded to these alleged offers by Perez.

As events subsequently unfolded, the former President was charged with a capital offense and non-bailable crime of plunder. Fortunately, President Arroyo abolished the death penalty last year, so Estrada won’t be executed if convicted by the Sandiganbayan. For close to six years now, the ousted President went through plunder trial where former administration officials and close associates of Estrada were paraded among government witnesses against him, one of whom was ex-Social Security System (SSS) chief Chuckie Arellano who, according to Estrada, was coerced to testify against him because Perez allegedly threatened to also charge him with plunder case if he would not cooperate with the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors.

But among those whom Perez allegedly failed to coerce to testify against the ousted President was Estrada’s estranged crony businessman Mark Jimenez. Jimenez fought back and even won a congressional seat in Manila. Through the stewardship of Perez at the DOJ, the Philippine government worked for the extradition of Jimenez back to the US where he was convicted for several counts of US Federal offenses. But before he was turned over to American Federal authorities, Jimenez made a privilege speech before Congress and accused Perez of extorting $2 million from him in February 2001 in exchange for dropping him as co-accused in the plunder case against Estrada. Before he was flown out of Manila, Jimenez filed on Dec. 23, 2002 an extortion complaint against Perez before the Office of the Ombudsman. Perez resigned from the Arroyo Cabinet on Jan. 2, 2003.

It took the Ombudsman only last Monday, or more than four years from that time to finally take action on this case against Perez. On the other hand, the former Manila solon was able to return to the country in December 2005 after serving his jail term in the US for almost three years. In the meantime, Estrada is now awaiting the decision of the anti-graft court on his plunder case while under detention in his rest house in Tanay, Rizal.

The last time I saw Perez was during the coverage of the May 2004 presidential elections while Mrs. Arroyo was campaigning in Batangas. She was the commencement speaker in one of the universities where she was invited by Perez as one of the members of the Board of Regents. Perez was also in the campaign trail vying for the governorship of Batangas but lost to Gov. Armand Sanchez.

I don’t know what happened then until last Monday when Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, with a heavy heart, charged her former boss with these crimes. A little birdie told me that Jimenez has been seen several times visiting the Palace meeting with you-know-who. Clue: It’s not with a lady with a blindfold and carrying a weighing scale.

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