Prosecution service leaves task of probing case vs Arroyo, Corona to Ombudsman

Renato C. Corona. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines— The National Prosecution Service will pass the task of investigating one of the landmark cases against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Chief Justice Renato Corona, and five other former Supreme Court Justices to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The case involved an alleged conspiracy to deprive more than 2,000 overseas Filipino workers of $609 million in back wages from US-based multi-million firm Kellog Brown and Root.

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano said they are only following the memorandum of understanding signed last year during the Prosecutors’ Convention where they will give way for an Ombudsman investigation in case complaints involved government officials with a Salary Grade 27 or higher and under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan.

“The Ombudsman will have the primary jurisdiction in the conduct of preliminary investigation and inquest proceedings over complaints for crimes cognizable by the Sandiganbayan…When complaints involving the said cases were filed before the DOJ [Department of Justice], the same shall immediately be endorsed to the Ombudsman,” Arellano said quoting the April 19, 2012, MOU.

Aside from Arroyo and Corona, also included in the complaint were retired Supreme Court Associate Justices Antonio Nachura, Consuelo Ynares Santiago, Ma. Alicia Martinez, Minita Chico-Nazario and Ruben Reyes. Also in the complaint are former National Labor Relations Commissioners [now Court of Appeals Associate Justice] Vicente Veloso and Tito Genilo.

The Justices are among those who ruled against the petition filed by some 2,000 employees. The high court, in their 2008 ruling through Nachura which was upheld in 2010, ruled that not all the more than 2,000 claimants are entitled to the US$609 million because some claims are unsubstantiated.

The National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) decision promulgated on Dec.3, 2002 awarded $609-million to their employees for back wages, damages, discrimination pay, hazard pay, retirement pay, plus 12 percent interest payments, among other awarded money claims.

The case was filed with the NLRC in 1984 to secure justice and compensation for all the marginalized and poor OFWs and similarly situated workers.

But the high court said, only 149 claimants are entitled to about $288,636.70.

The complainants were hired and employed by Brown & Root International, Inc. (now Kellog-Brown and Root) in their overseas projects in the Middle East, like Bahrain and United Arab Emirates from 1976 to the 1990s. Many of them worked also in Vietnam during the war between North and South Vietnam in the 1960s before their overseas employment in Bahrain and the U.A.E.

Kellog-Brown & Root, based on Texas, is an associated company of the Halliburton Group of Companies where Vice President Richard “Dick” Cheney was the chief executive officer (CEO) for five years.