SC asks Sandigan judge to answer charges linking him to Napoles

Sandiganbayan building facade. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has given Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong and four lawyers 10 days to comment on allegations made by pork barrel scam whistle-blowers Benhur Luy and Marina Sula at a Senate hearing last month.

“The Court en banc acted motu propio to order Justice Ong and the four lawyers to comment on the sworn allegations aired by Luy and Sula. Justice Ong and the four lawyers are given a non-extendible period of 10 days from notice to submit their respective comment to the Court en banc,” Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said at a press conference.

At the hearing conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee last September 26, Sula claimed she saw Ong visiting the office of Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion scam involving the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund.

The lawyers—Mark Oliveros, Edita Talaboc, Raymond Tansip and Joshua Lapuz—were identified by Luy during the same hearing as being the ones who helped in the notarization of the articles of incorporation of fake nongovernmental organizations and other documents allegedly used by Napoles in the scam.

Luy claimed the lawyers left specimens of their signatures, notarial dry seals and notarial books for Napoles to use.

Te said the Supreme Court’s investigation of Ong and the four lawyers was part of the high courts’s exercise of administrative supervision over judiciary officials and lawyers.

Last month, Ong wrote a letter to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno saying he welcomes an investigation “to clear the air and defend my reputation.” With a report from Tetch Torres-Tupas, INQUIRER.net

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