Calida, kin ask SC to stop Senate probe on firm’s deals with gov’t

Solicitor General Jose Calida and his family have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stop Senator Antonio Trillanes IV's plan to investigate the alleged conflict of interest in their security agency's multimillion-peso contracts with government agencies.

In a petition filed Tuesday, Calida, his wife Milagros and children Josef, Michelle, and Mark Jorel sought a temporary restraining order barring Trillanes from conducting his "void" intended legislative inquiry into Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency, Inc's (Vigilant) contracts with state offices.

The Senate calendar shows the scheduled August 16 hearing on the resolution titled "Conflict of Interest of Solicitor General Jose Calida" of the Blue Ribbon Committee with the Civil Service, Government, Reorganization and Professional Regulation Committee was canceled the day before.

Trillanes chairs the latter committee, which the Calida family contends has no jurisdiction over the intended probe. The blue ribbon committee does, but only as long as there is "legislative agenda" to the inquiry, they claimed.

Opposition senators, including Trillanes, had filed a resolution calling for such an investigation, but the Calida family alleged Trillanes decided to carry out the probe on his own, as there is supposedly no proof the resolution was acted upon, approved, or denied by the Senate.

The resolution has, in fact, been transferred to the blue ribbon committee, chaired by Senator Richard Gordon.

"Stripped to its core, the intention of [Trillanes] is to obtain evidence, investigate offenses or violations allegedly committed by Petitioner Solicitor General or the Petitioners Family Members, and humiliate them, all in the guise of an invocation of legislative power," their petition said.

They asked the letters sent by Trillanes - which informed them of the scheduled August 16 investigation - to be declared void and restrained for "failing to meet a legislative purpose."

The family also wants the staunch opposition lawmaker permanently barred from conducting the legislative inquiry or from initiating or holding any probe against them  "on his own and without legal authority from the Senate and law."

The SC has ordered Trillanes to comment on the petition within 10 days upon receipt of notice.

Calida landed news headlines upon the discovery that Vigilant, of which he was previously chairman and still is major shareholder, had bagged security service contracts worth P200 million from several government agencies, including the Department of Justice.

He has constantly insisted there is no conflict of interest in the deals, a stance he and his family maintained in their petition. 

"The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), as a government agency, is not involved in the approval of the contracts between Vigilant and its clients. Those contracts were all obtained through public bidding in accordance with law. Neither is the OSG involved in the business of licensing, regulating or supervising security agencies such as Vigilant," the filing said.

Thus, the intended probe is "void, or at least unduly oppressive, because it is intended to prosecute an alleged conflict of interest that does not meet the test laid down in Rabe," it said, referring to jurisprudence the Calidas argued guides what constitutes conflict of interest. —NB/RSJ, GMA News