De Lima: Evidence gathered against Binay will go straight to Ombudsman
MANILA, Philippines—The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will create a five-member team to conduct a fact finding probe of Vice President Jejomar Binay.
“The team will be doing the investigation as sort of parallel investigation from what the Senate Blue Ribbon sub-committee and the Office of the Ombudsman is doing,” De Lima said.
She met with former Makati vice mayor Ernesto Mercado and two other witnesses at the Department of Justice (DOJ) Thursday.
“I heard their information [but] we will only choose, which among the allegations can the NBI be of help. It would be difficult to cover all their allegations,” De Lima said.
However, De Lima said the team will not make any recommendation.
“[The investigation] will be different from PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) in such a way that there will be no transmittal recommending prosecution,” De Lima said.
“Every evidence gathered will be forwarded to the Ombudsman. If we cannot validate, we cannot transmit anything,” De Lima said.
De Lima said she wanted to avoid the question of immunity.
“Let’s say we can establish an anomaly, can he be charged? That is the open question…We will leave it up to the Ombudsman,” De Lima said.
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