‘Is Secretary Villanueva just a sacrificial lamb?’ asks Cayetano

By: Maila Ager - 10 years ago

MANILA, Philippines –Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano is urging the Department of Justice to follow the evidence in filing cases against administration allies and not because of criticisms and ‘pressure’ from certain sectors.

Director General Joel Villanueva of the Technical, Educational Skills and Development Authority

“The Department of Justice must not allow its investigation to be dictated simply by the clamor of certain groups and individuals to include administration allies in the pork barrel cases. Truth and evidence should be the primary consideration of the investigation,” Cayetano said in a statement on Tuesday.

Cayetano particularly cited the case of Technical, Educational Skills and Development Authority (Tesda) Director General Joel Villanueva, who was among those reportedly included in the next batches of cases that the DOJ would file in connection with the “pork barrel” scam.

The senator noted that just like him, Villanueva is an anti-corruption advocate, who has been fighting corruption since he joined Congress as representative of the CIBAC (Citizens Battle Against Corruption) partylist.

“In the case of Secretary Villanueva, he didn’t meet any of the three criteria as presented by Secretary De Lima herself,” Cayetano said, referring to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

“He never put anything in the Napoles (NGO); second, there’s no whistleblower pointing to him, and third, the special audit itself said that the project was delivered and was fully audited but it was in the papers that a case will be filed against him,” said the senator.

Napoles is detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the “pork” scam.

“So now the people are asking, what is the process of the DOJ in determining who will be charged or not? Is it the evidence or is this just about public pressure and criticism? Is Secretary Villanueva just a sacrificial lamb?” Cayetano asked.

“The DOJ should follow the evidence and the documents readily available from the COA and DBM and not be pressured just to save face,” he added.

COA is Commission on Audit while DBM is Department of Budget and Management.

The senator pointed out that the strength of cases against powerful public officials has always emanated from truth and evidence.

“If we start filing cases just because it is popular, the stronger cases will also be affected and the credibility of the investigators will be severely damaged,” said Cayetano.

“Whether they are Palace allies or detractors, the DOJ must file the cases for as long as they are really guilty and not because critics are pressuring them to do so,” he said.