Just-resigned Justice chief Vitaliano Aguirre II starts his day at the Department of Justice attending the agency’s monthly First Friday mass on April 6, 2018, in Manila. (INQUIRER.net/Julius N. Leonen)
Freshly-resigned Justice chief Vitaliano Aguirre II has said goodbye at the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Atty. Vitaliano Aguirre started his first day as DOJ head with a mass. @inquirerdotnet pic.twitter.com/E9RpKGgLqF
— tetch torres-tupas (@T2TupasINQ) July 1, 2016
On Friday noon, Aguirre, alongside his wife, Marissa Lim, joined DOJ employees in attending the monthly First Friday Mass at the agency. It can be recalled that Aguirre also started his stint at the DOJ attending a mass.
LOOK: Resigned DOJ Sec Vitaliano Aguirre II is wearing his frat jacket.
Aguirre & four of his undersecretaries are brods of President Duterte in Lex Talionis fraternity. | @MRamosINQ
pic.twitter.com/rQKYRFhzJ0— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) April 6, 2018
Aguirre, wearing his fraternity jacket, was accompanied by Justice Undersecretaries Reynante Orceo, Deo Marco, Raymund Mecate, and Antonio Kho. They are all fraternity brothers of President Rodrigo Duterte at Lex Talionis.
LOOK: Priest blesses resigned DOJ Secretary Aguirre during mass offertory | @JLeonenINQ https://t.co/9PkHSJ6Nh0
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) April 6, 2018
After hearing the mass, Aguirre issued a statement thanking Mr. Duterte “for the trust and the confidence he reposed on me as his first Secretary of Justice.”
“I am equally thankful for the opportunity to have served our countrymen as the steward of your DOJ. In our own humble way, we have delivered on our promise to make the DOJ better than when we found it,” Aguirre also said.
On Thursday, Mr. Duterte announced in a speech at Malacañang that he has accepted Aguirre’s resignation.
The President then immediately sworn in Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra as new justice secretary in lieu of Aguirre.
As DOJ chief, Aguirre’s marching orders from Duterte were to put an end to corruption within the agency and to prioritize the prosecution of high-profile drug cases.
The resignation of Aguirre came amid public outrage against the DOJ panel’s dismissal of the illegal drug complaint against self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and alleged drug lord Peter Lim, among others.
Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) Commissioner Greco Belgica said on Friday that Aguirre resigned because of the people’s loss of trust in him,
READ: Aguirre resigned due to public’s loss of trust in him – official
“Ang malinaw po ‘yung (What was clear was) failure ng prosecutors to conduct a fair investigation right now based on evidences. Hindi naman talaga umabot pa sa kanya pero because of the fall nung respeto nung tao sa [kanya], he took it upon himself,” Belgica said in an interview with Radyo Inquirer. /kga