Palace: Aquino ordered NBI to probe Vitangcol

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Metro Rail Transit (MRT) general manager Al Vitangcol is allegedly under Malacañang protection, but presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said on Friday that that was only speculation and things would become clear when the National Bureau of Investigation, ordered by President Benigno Aquino III to investigate the allegations, submits its report.

The NBI has completed the investigation and the bureau’s legal division is reviewing the findings, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Friday.

Lacierda rejected calls for Vitangcol to go on leave, saying the MRT general manager had already done that to give way to an investigation.

Lacierda said he was not sure if President Aquino personally knew Vitangcol.

As for calls for Vitangcol’s resignation, Lacierda said the MRT chief was entitled to “due process.”

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and Vitangcol did not reply to requests for comments on Friday.

Vitangcol had denied the allegations, but President Aquino ordered the NBI to investigate, and Lacierda said the government would be guided by evidence in prosecuting officials who would be found liable in the alleged extortion.

NBI Director Virgilio Mendez said on Friday that the investigation focused on “who was telling the truth.”

Mendez declined to confirm or deny earlier reports that NBI investigators had cleared Vitangcol.

An NBI source, however, told the Inquirer that Czech Ambassador to the Philippines Josef Rychtar had expressed willingness to testify but would be asked to waive his diplomatic immunity.

“Though we give credence to his statement, we want to know if he is willing to waive his diplomatic [immunity] in the event that countercharges are filed against him,” the source, who requested anonymity, said.

The source said the investigators had yet to take the official position of Rychtar.

“The ambassador has yet to officially state whether he is complaining as an official of Inekon or as Czech ambassador,” the source said.

Reacting to a GMA 7 report on Rychtar on Friday, Michael Sagcal, spokesperson for the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), denied that the department did nothing about the diplomat’s allegations.

“The DOTC conducted an administrative investigation into the matter. However, the investigation yielded no findings in line with his [Rychtar’s] allegations, since the scope of our authority is limited, and notably, he himself refused to cooperate officially,” Sagcal said.

“In fact, we have been waiting for a formal complaint substantiating his claims for almost one year, when he first raised this issue informally. Given his refusal to formalize his complaint, we should await the result of the NBI’s investigation instead, since it is the more proper agency to look into the issue,” Sagcal said.

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