DOJ-LED Task force set to file first batch of graft cases

The special anticorruption body is now readying the first batch of complaints that it would file in the Office of Ombudsman against erring public officials allegedly behind fraudulent government contracts, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra disclosed on Monday.

Guevarra made the announcement barely two months after President Duterte created the Task Force Against Corruption, a multiagency body headed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), on Oct. 27.

He, however, declined to comment if the first batch included lawmakers and if these involved Department of Public Works and Highways projects.

“We’ll inform you in time. We’re still validating [the information],” Guevarra told the Inquirer.

“We may be able to file a couple of formal charges within the month,” he said.

The justice secretary said the task force had been verifying all the information and reports submitted to its operations center regarding alleged irregularities in various state agencies.

“The mechanism for the efficient operations of the [task force] is in place and is now processing complaints and reports on corruption,” he said. INQ