Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda PHOTO/INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Monday pressed a whistleblower to back up his charges that former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, former Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Philippine National Police chiefs took jueteng payoffs with hard evidence.
Mayor Rodrigo Orduña of Bugallon, Pangasinan, would be asked to “present evidence’’ to the Department of Interior and Local Government, which has opened an investigation into his revelations, Secretary Edwin Lacierda said.
“Obviously there is no documentary evidence here. But if he has some oral evidence that can be supported, then that is something that the DILG will have to investigate,’’ the presidential spokesperson said in a Malacañang briefing.
Pending the outcome of the investigation, Lacierda said it would be premature to say that the government could pin down Arroyo, Puno and the rest of the officials, and would eventually file charges against them.
“It’s unfair for us from the Palace to be preempting… we might be accused of committing political harassment against the former First Gentleman. So we would rather let the investigation push through,’’ he said.
Orduña alleged that Arroyo, Puno and the PNP chief were the top three officials who protected the operations of the multi-billion-peso illegal numbers game, and received hefty sums in the millions of pesos.
He claimed that it was standard practice to set aside jueteng payola (payoff) for the “Three Kings’’ from their “plantilla’’ (bluebook.) He, however, admitted that he never saw them receive protection money during the Arroyo administration. Arroyo’s lawyer flatly denied the charges.
Lacierda also asked Orduña to disclose the other jueteng money recipients, and back this up with hard evidence.
“The only thing we’re asking is No. 1 you have first-hand knowledge because second-hand knowledge is not admissible in court. If he has personal knowledge, that’s up to him whether to disclose it. Of course we’re urging him to disclose everything he knows,’’ he said.
Lacierda said the government needed hard evidence “to make sure that these charges stick.’’
In the face of criticism the government was singling out Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr., Lacierda said the DILG would run after all officials involved in jueteng.
“Secretary Mar Roxas already made a statement that we’re going to go after jueteng operators. What is important and as a matter of basic remedial law is that, we ought to have—we make sure that our evidence is there and that our evidence will stick; that we can’t just file cases for show, it has to be supported by evidence,’’ he said.
Orduña filed plunder charges against Espino whom he accused of receiving P900 million in protection money from the operators of the illegal numbers racket.