Ex-TRC chief wants prosecutors cited in contempt over ‘false’ pork charges

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The former director general of an alleged Janet Lim-Napoles’ conduit wants the prosecuting panel cited in contempt for filing “false and fabricated” charges against him over the “pork” barrel scam.
Former Technology Resource Center (TRC) director general Antonio Ortiz said the public prosecutors filed a “perjured” motion to expunge from the case records Ortiz’s motion to quash the case and recall the arrest warrant against him.

In the prosecutor’s motion, they called Ortiz a “fugitive from justice.” Ortiz is said to have left the country last September 2013 and has since not returned to face his graft case. He has also yet to post bail.

Those he wants cited in contempt are Manuel Soriano, Danilo Lopez, Ma. Christina Marallag-Batacan, Anna Isabel Aurellano, Peter Jedd Boco, Manuel Soriano, Maria Janina Hidalgo, Jennifer Agustin-See, Edwin Gomez, and Annielyn Medes-Cabelis, who are among the prosecutors in the plunder and graft cases of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada.

“Their false and fabricated assertions… tend to mislead the Honorable Sandiganbayan, directly impede, obstruct, and degrade the administration of justice. They are, therefore, liable for direct contempt,” the motion read.

Ortiz is accused of using TRC as a conduit for lawmakers to course their pork barrel funds to the bogus foundations of Napoles, who is said to be the brains behind the P10-billion “pork” barrel scam.