DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre and PNP Chief Ronald De la Rosa during the turn over ceremony between Bucor guards and SAF in Muntinlupa City. EDWIN BACASMAS / PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre on Wednesday said the alleged drug matrix of President Rodrigo Duterte linking Senator Leila De Lima to the drug trade did not come from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
During the appropriations committee hearing on the proposed P15.017 billion budget in 2017 at the House of Representatives, Kabayan Rep. Harry Roque asked Aguirre about Duterte’s drug matrix linking De Lima and her driver and supposed lover Ronnie Dayan to the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison.
Aguirre said the DOJ is conducting its own investigation on the illegal drug trade in Bilibid.
READ: Duterte matrix out; tags De Lima, ex-Pangasinan gov, others
“I’m really sorry, it did not come from us. We have our own investigation about this happening about the drug proliferation at the National Bilibid Prison,” Aguirre told the lawmakers.
“That drug matrix did not come from us. Although we could corroborate,” he added.
READ: Duterte slams De Lima, says lover collected drug payoffs for her
Roque also asked about the dismal one percent conviction rate of the DOJ in cases involving extrajudicial killings.
Aguirre said latest figures show that there is an 11 percent conviction rate on extrajudicial killing cases.
Aguirre said he hoped Congress could return the P100-million budget for a separate office of the prosecutors handling cases of extrajudicial killings that was deleted in the National Expenditure Program.
“I was told we have no permanent office for our prosecution of extra-legal killings. Perhaps we could provide an office for this particular purpose… Extrajudicial killings should be guarded by the DOJ,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre asked for a separate office for extrajudicial killing cases amid a spate of vigilante killings of drug suspects at the height of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal said Congress may fund this separate office for the DOJ prosecutors through congressional insertion.
According to the National Expenditure Program, the DOJ has a proposed P15.017 billion in 2017, 15.8 percent higher than the current P12.966 billion budget. TVJ