Justice Sec. Vitaliano Aguirre INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
What agreement?
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday said that while the Department of Justice (DOJ) was listed as among the recipients of copies of a supposed draft deal between the Duterte administration and the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, he has not seen it.
“We received no instruction from any higher-ups about it,” said Aguirre. “In other words, we are completely ignorant about it,” he said.
The proposed deal, drafted by Marcos loyalist and lawyer Oliver Lozano, would have the Marcoses surrender an unspecified amount of their supposed ill-gotten wealth in exchange for the speedy disposition of criminal cases against them.
“Actually, it was not discussed in the Cabinet,” Aguirre told reporters. “I could not say anything because I have never seen it,” said the justice secretary, who was listed as the representative of President Duterte in the proposed deal.
But would he read the document? Aguirre said it was his job to do so.
Aguirre, though, said he would not exert “special effort” to secure a copy despite the DOJ supposedly being among recipients of copies of the document.
Obligation to read
He said if he gets his hands on a copy of the proposed deal, he would have to go over it because “it is just our obligation to read anything that is filed before us or sent (to) us.”
KBL candidate Panelo
Copies of the draft deal spread on social media before Malacañang admitted it received the document from Lozano, who sent it to the office of lawyer Salvador Panelo, chief presidential legal counsel.
Panelo, who ran for senator and lost as a candidate of the Marcos party Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, said “no action has been taken” on Lozano’s proposal, which the Marcoses have already disowned.