Group wants in on plunder rap vs Bong Pineda
By Tonette Orejas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:43:00 07/18/2008
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A group of Kapampangans waging war on criminally syndicated gambling in their province is seeking recognition as party to the plunder case that Gov. Eddie Panlilio filed against suspected gambling lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda last June 23.
The Pampanga Anti-Gambling Council (PAGC) asked Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to recognize the signatories in its online petition as co-complainants in the plunder case.
The petition, done in support of Panlilio’s antijueteng campaign, has gathered at least 36 signatures on the first day PAGC uploaded the appeal on Wednesday.
The signatories on www.petitiononline.com/jueteng/petition.html were Filipinos in various parts of the country and the United States, the site showed.
The online appeal came a few days after 69 Catholic bishops wrote a letter asking Gutierrez to “really attend to the merits” of the case filed against Pineda in connection with his supposed role in the commission of plunder by former President Joseph Estrada.
“Former Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, in a press statement... on July 1, 2002, stated that Pineda [would] be indicted in the plunder case of... Estrada. He was not indicted,” said the petition created and written by Fr. Marius Roque, PAGC chair.
It said Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, on Sept. 24, 2007, had said in a news report that the “decision of the Sandiganbayan [was] clear that the suspected jueteng lords, who were mentioned in the ruling, [were] the sources of the jueteng funds of Estrada in his jueteng affairs.”
“The suspected jueteng lords mentioned among others Bong Pineda,” the PAGC said.
Villa-Ignacio, it added, had said he was “just waiting for the finality of the Sandiganbayan Special Division ruling convicting Estrada for the crime of plunder and after which he will take the next move.”
But the PAGC said the decision of the Sandiganbayan has “long become final and executory.” It convicted Estrada of plunder in September 2007.
President Macapagal-Arroyo, a close friend of Bong Pineda’s wife Lilia, pardoned Estrada last year.
“But to date, no plunder charge was filed against Bong Pineda and the other jueteng lords mentioned in the decision,” the PAGC said.
Panlilio’s case cited the plunder law, Republic Act No. 7080, which states that “any person who participated with said public officer in the commission of an offense contributing to the crime of plunder shall likewise be punished for such offense.”
“We, Church leaders of various Christian denominations, cause-oriented groups and individual supporters of the crusade of [Panlilio] for good governance, demand that your office act on the complaint filed by [Panlilio] and consider us all whose signatures appear below as co-complainants,” the PAGC told Gutierrez.
Pineda, or his lawyers, has not issued any statement on the case since it was filed last month.
He had denied allegations he had operated the illegal numbers game or even the government-sanctioned small town lottery.
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