DOJ usec in running to be secretary resigns

AN OFFICIAL earlier rumored to be in the running for justice secretary has resigned from the Department of Justice to return to private practice.

Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano tendered his resignation on Wednesday, the same day newly appointed Justice Secretary Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa assumed office.

Justiniano said his resignation had nothing to do with Caguioa’s appointment. He and Caguioa had once both worked at the SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan law firm.

“Nothing to do with that. I had been preparing for that (resignation) earlier,” Justiniano said when reached by text Thursday.

He said he left public service to heed a family decision.

“It’s a family decision for me to go back to private practice,” he said. Justiniano came to public attention in 2005 as one of the defense lawyers of US Marines tagged in the Subic rape case.

Justiniano was also among the private prosecutors that succeeded in convicting impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.

He said he was joining Peña and Lumagui, a Makati City law firm.

In his two years at the DOJ, Justiniano handled major cases, including the plunder case against Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in the Sandiganbayan, where the lawyer was a deputized prosecutor. Estrada is among top officials tagged in the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund scam. Tarra Quismundo