DPWH chief Villar not exempt from corruption probe, says wife

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar will face charges if there is evidence he is involved in corruption, his wife, Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar, said Thursday.

President Rodrigo Duterte has said Villar is too rich to be corrupt. His statement was seen by Senator Panfilo Lacson as exempting Villar, son of billionaire businessman Manuel Villar Jr. and Senator Cynthia Villar, from the government-wide corruption investigation he had ordered.

Aglipay-Villar, however, said the President was just expressing his "'trust and confidence" in her husband, as well as Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who faces allegations in connection with his chairmanship of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

"But [Duterte] also said in his memorandum that all government officials and employees are included in the investigation, which means that no one is exempt," the Department of Justice (DOJ) undersecretary said on ANC.

Asked whether her husband will be included in the investigation, she said, "Yes, because that's what the President also said in his memorandum, that all government officials and employees are included and if the evidence warrants that a case be filed against them, we should do so."

She earlier said she will not be involved in the investigation of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra identified as one of the agencies that the task force will prioritize.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/761736/guevarra-identifies-5-agencies-to-prioritize-in-corruption-probe/story/

Apart from the DPWH, the task force will prioritize investigating PhilHealth, the Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Land Registration Authority.

The DOJ-led task force is composed of the National Bureau of Investigation, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, the Office of the Special Assistant to the President, the National Prosecution Service, and the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

The Commission on Audit, the Civil Service Commission, and the Office of the Ombudsman will also be invited to work with the task force "with due consideration for their independence as constitutional bodies," according to the DOJ.

Originally ordered to investigate PhilHealth, the task force has filed criminal complaints against several officials of the state insurer before the Ombudsman even as further investigations continue. —KBK, GMA News