Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. PHOTO BY JOAN BONDOC/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“Look who’s talking.”
So said Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II when sought for his reaction on the allegation of former Justice secretary now detained Senator Leila De Lima that the Duterte administration will only use Janet Lim-Napoles to go after the opposition.
Aguirre asked why only Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla were charged for the alleged misuse of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) when there have been reports that Napoles gave De Lima a long list that included several senators allied with former President Benigno Aquino III.
The Justice Chief said there was selective justice in the investigation and prosecution of lawmakers who benefitted from the pork barrel scam.
“She promised that ‘next week’ more officials will be charged. I think she reiterated that promise two or three times but nothing happened,” Aguirre said.
Last week, Aguirre met with Napoles’ lawyer Atty. Stephen David.
The government is looking at the possibility of talking to Napoles as part of their reinvestigation in the PDAF scam.
But Aguirre assured that there will be no selective justice in connection with the reinvestigation of PDAF scam cases.
“I can assure you that unlike the previous administration, there will be no selective justice in our reinvestigation. We will only be guided by evidence here,” Aguirre added.
He also said that the DOJ will not use the reinvestigation to blackmail the opposition even as he pointed out that if they have nothing to hide, then they would have nothing to fear from the probe.
Aguirre earlier pointed out that there was selective justice in the investigation and prosecution of lawmakers in the pork barrel scam in the previous administration adding that only three senators – Enrile, Estrada and Revilla – and several congressmen were indicted despite the fact that Napoles had tagged more than a hundred lawmakers and officials.