De Lima mum on ‘pork’ respondents, says raps to be filed Monday

Justice Secretary Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Leila de Lima declined to confirm the identities of the prominent personalities set to be indicted for plunder and other cases for their alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam, saying the premature disclosure of respondents could cause inconvenience to the prosecution.

The names were divulged to the Philippine Daily Inquirer by lawyer Levito Baligod, counsel of a group of whistleblowers who exposed the PDAF scam that is now being probed by the National Bureau of Investigation.

“I’m not going to confirm anything. We don’t know why those names came out. I asked Attorney Baligod a few moments ago after I saw the [Inquirer’s] banner. He has not named names, according to him. So at this point, I won’t confirm or deny the persons we going to charge,” De Lima told reporters in an ambush interview.

“Just wait for actual cases to be filed. These [disclosure of names] are adding pressure to the NBI team. It’s really difficult when the names always come out even before the filing [of the case],” she added.

The justice secretary said the NBI has not secured the complete documentary evidence from the whistleblowers. The documents will be submitted by Baligod and integrated in the NBI complaint.

“Some of them (documents) are already with us, others with the NBI. There are some which I would determine later if already complete. And then there are those that will come from Attorney Baligod. The documents are going back and forth Baligod and the NBI, and sometimes, the NBI team would be assisting Baligod in coming up with those documents,” De Lima explained.

Charges will be filed on Monday at the latest, according to De Lima.

“It would be difficult to file on Monday. The latest on Monday, so [we will exercise our] best efforts,” she said.

De Lima earlier said that the cases to be recommended by the NBI against the government officials and private persons involved in the scam would just be endorsed by the DOJ to  the Office of the Ombudsman, which would conduct the preliminary investigation and would be the one to file the case before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.

The DOJ normally has the option to conduct its own preliminary investigation on complaints referred to it, including those involving government officials, before referring the case to the Ombudsman.

However, the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council, which includes the NBI, DOJ, Commission on Audit and the Ombudsman, among others, has decided to look into the pork barrel scam.

Aside from facilitating and expediting the investigation and prosecution process, the IAAGCC was supposed to eliminate duplication of processes and overlapping jurisdictions by the various investigating agencies.