Department of Justice building INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Justice Secretary Leila De Lima on Friday said they would study the accusations by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on the alleged involvement of Senator Juan Ponce-Enrile into several illegal activities.
De Lima issued the statement after Santiago sent her a one-page letter on Thursday asking that she tap the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate Enrile.
“This is to respectfully appeal for you to order the NBI to investigate Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile… In due course, the NBI report could indicate if further action should be taken against Enrile by other concerned agencies, such as the Commission on Human Rights, Ombudsman, Pagcor, BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), etc.,” Santiago said.
Santiago also sent De Lima a copy of her privilege speech where she accused Enrile of being the brains behind “deaths and disappearances” during Martial Law, tagged him as the “King” of illegal logging empire under Martial Law, and accused him of illegal smuggling via Cagayan’s Port Irene, and illegal gambling, among others.
“I need to go over again her privilege speech…I want to go over that and then I will see what can be investigated at this point,” De Lima told reporters.
“Now, off hand, we can look into allegations pertaining to alleged smuggling, alleged illegal logging, alleged gambling, especially online, those related to CEZA (Cagayan Economic Zone Authority), because as I can recall, during the time of Sec Robredo, the PNP [Philippine National Police] has been undertaking operations against online gambling,” De Lima said, referring to the late Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.
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