Palace to take action vs Ombudsman prosecutors

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang said Thursday it will take action against the special prosecutors in the Office of the Ombudsman who were behind the plea bargain deal with retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia “as expeditiously as possible.”

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Malacañang has the power to discipline special prosecutors Wendell Sulit and the other prosecutors of the Office of the Ombudsman involved in the allegedly disadvantageous deal that caused Garcia to walk free on bail.

“We will provide them due process. We will ask them to explain,” Lacierda said at a news briefing in Malacañang.

Lacierda said the Palace was treating the report of the House committee on justice on its investigation of the Garcia plea bargain as a complaint against the concerned prosecutors.

“There will be a response from them. So after that, depending on what will be required, provided that we accord them substantive and procedural due process, we will come out with a resolution one way or the other,” he added.

“As to the timetable, we’ll try to make it as expeditiously as possible,” Lacierda said.

Lacierda made the remarks shortly after Sen. Teofisto Guingona III read in the Senate the Blue Ribbon Committee’s partial report on military corruption that recommended administrative charges against Sulit and the other special prosecutors.

The presidential spokesman said that Malacañang will also treat the Senate panel findings as a complaint against the prosecutors.

President Aquino, in a recent speech at the Philippine Military Academy, said that the administration was looking into what charges could be filed against generals involved in corruption in the past administration as well as against the prosecutors involved in the Garcia plea bargain.