Incoming DOJ chief vows to probe ‘midnight resolutions’

The camp of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte led by Justice Secretary-designate Vitaliano Aguirre. YUJI VINCENT GONZALES/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Incoming Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday said he would look into the alleged involvement of prosecutors and other officials in “midnight resolutions” or last-minute rulings on criminal complaints in exchange for hefty bribes.

“We will find out who are involved in this. We will not consent to this, but, of course, the group that divulged this should also provide evidence, especially since the ones they’re accusing is a high-ranking Department of Justice (DOJ) official,” Aguirre told reporters.

Outgoing Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas, in a press conference, denied the allegations made by the anticorruption watchdog Filipino Alliance for Transparency and Empowerment (Fate), saying the DOJ and its prosecutors are all professionals and that resolutions were being issued in compliance with deadlines and to resolve the backlog of cases.

“We’re just doing our job and we do it the best way we know and if anybody wishes to say anything other than that, accuse us, while you are free to do that, please be responsible about it because if you don’t know how to be responsible about it, you might as well shut up,” he said.

Fate secretary general Jo Perez said “rewritten rulings” were being “antedated” and being sold for “millions of pesos” to parties in the case. She did not name the cases involved or where and how they got their information.

Perez said the resolutions were being sold from P5 million to P10 million and P20 million for big cases. She accused Caparas of “meddling” in various cases, even instructing his subordinates—undersecretaries and state prosecutors—to stop issuing resolutions by June 3 so that he would be the one to rewrite or reverse resolutions favoring some parties.

Aguirre said he would form a team to coordinate with Fate to look into the allegation and is  willing to talk to the group.

Caparas said issuing resolutions are part of his and the prosecutors’ jobs so any insinuation that the DOJ’s processes have been compromised should be dealt with.

The outgoing secretary said he won’t be writing decisions up to the very end of his tenure on June 30. He said he would be visiting DOJ offices in the provinces after June 15, and won’t be signing resolutions from then on.

He said among the last resolutions the DOJ prosecutors would issue was for the complaint of murder, direct assault and theft of government property against more than 90 Moro guerrilla fighters and individuals accused of killing police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, in January last year.

The resolution could still be subjected to a motion for reconsideration and still be appealable to the office of the secretary through a petition for review. A party dissatisfied with the ruling can still elevate the case to the Office of the President, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.