PNP refuses to release Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada mugshots
PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—No VIP treatment?
After it vowed not to give preferential treatment to senators tagged in the P10-billion pork barrel racket, the Philippine National Police (PNP) refused on Monday to make public the mugshots of Senators Bong Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada.
Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP spokesperson, offered a token apology and a rather vague explanation why the police could not provide mugshots of the two senators to the media.
The PNP previously provided copies of the mugshots of suspected pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles, GlobeAsiatique owner and president Delfin Lee, model Deniece Cornejo and other high-profile detainees.
Lee has been detained over the P6.8-billion housing scam while Cornejo was ordered arrested for the alleged illegal detention of TV host-actor Vhong Navarro, whom she had accused of raping her.
“We are trying to rush the documents which we should submit to the Sandiganbayan regarding the commitment order for Senator Estrada,” Sindac told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“We have to submit them (Monday) so we don’t have time to process the mugshots and give it to you,” he said.
Sindac said the PNP Public Information Office “may” release Estrada and Revilla’s photographs during their arrest “but it will be limited.”
He disclosed Estrada’s lawyers barred the PNP’s official photographer to take pictures and document the senator’s 15-minute booking procedure.
“It was actually the request of the senator’s family, which they made through the lawyers,” Sindac said.
Told that it has been three days since Revilla was taken to Camp Crame, the PNP official said: “You can get his mugshots from the appropriate PNP office. My office does not have any copies of their mugshots.”
But a senior police official claimed it was Interior Secretary Mar Roxas who instructed the PNP not to release to the media Revilla and Estrada’s mugshots.
“Secretary Roxas wants to keep the PNP’s promise not to humiliate the senators,” the source said.
But Roxas vehemently denied issuing the instruction to the police.
“I’m here in Ormoc (City). I don’t even know what’s happening there,” Roxas said in a text message.
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