Gordon on De Lima remark: Aguirre’s predecessors should be probed, too

Senator Richard Gordon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

If Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II would be investigated over the alleged P50-million bribery scandal at the Bureau of Immigration (BI), then all his predecessors should also be probed for giving unwarranted privileges to certain prisoners inside the national penitentiary like “kubols (small huts)” and cellphones.

This was how Senator Richard Gordon reacted to Senator Leila de Lima’s move to have the bribery scandal investigated by the Senate.

READ: De Lima: Senate should probe BI bribery scandal

Aside from two immigration officials who allegedly received P50-million bribe money from businessman tycoon Jack Lam, De Lima also wants Aguirre to be investigated for his own admission that Lam had also allegedly offered him a P100-million bribe a month. She also noted her successor’s “seeming lackluster response” on Lam’s alleged bribery try.

“Ako naman ang tingin ko, all the previous Secretaries of Justice should be investigated for their failure to manage the bureau of prison system, for allowing kubols, cellphones, allowing prisoners to escape—command responsibility yan all the way to the President,” Gordon said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

“To me, that’s the bigger offense because malinaw e, the evidence is already there. You can see them having privileges that are unwarranted, that’s a violation of the penalties given by the Supreme Court,” he said.

The investigation, he said, should cover all former Justice Secretaries, who did not act or had failed to act on the privileges that were enjoyed by certain inmates.

Told about De Lima’s argument that Aguirre did not immediately order the arrest of a person bribing him, Gordon also pointed to the testimonies of some inmates at the New Bilibid Prison claiming that they were also able to speak directly to the lady senator, when she was still the Justice Secretary.

He was apparently referring to some inmates, who had testified in the House of Representatives and accused De Lima of alleged involvement in illegal drugs at the national penitentiary during her stint as Justice Secretary. But the lady senator repeatedly denied any links to illegal drugs.

De Lima earlier filed a resolution, directing the Senate committee on accountability of public officers and investigations or the blue ribbon committee, chaired by Gordon, to look into the bribery scandal involving immigration officials.

But she said she would withdraw her resolution and have it replaced with a “modified” one so it would be referred to the Senate committee on civil service, government reorganization and professional regulation, chaired by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, where a similar measure had also been referred to for investigation. RAM