Duterte: I can't probe congressmen linked to corruption, kickbacks

President Rodrigo Duterte said he was not in a position to investigate members of the House of Representatives who had been linked to corrupt practices involving projects in their respective constituencies by his Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.

He said he could also not name them as he had been doing to allegedly errant government officials in his weekly briefings because they belonged to a co-equal branch of government, the legislature.

"If I do not have jurisdiction, then I do not have the authority to release their names," Duterte said in a briefing on Monday night. He said he would have to forward the findings of graft against the congressmen to the Ombudsman.

Duterte claimed he is not trying to cover up for the congressmen and stressed that he cannot mention names as he has no jurisdiction.

“I’m not trying to wash my hand, I am now dwelling on the law,” he said. “If I cannot investigate the congressmen then I have no authority to be releasing their names that they are involved per investigation by the PACC.”

“‘Di sa natatakot o may kino-cover-an na congressman, wala. Pagdating sa listahan, it will be given to me and to me alone,” he added.

When the time comes, Duterte said he will ask the Secretary of Justice to review the list and the latter will pass it to the Ombudsman.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the chair of the anti-corruption task force Duterte formed, said the PACC and the Anti-Money Laundering Council had the authority to identify personalities in alleged graft cases under investigation.

Guevarra said allegedly corrupt transactions were the ones being investigated, not individuals.

“It’s not really the person who is being investigated but a particular transaction na maaari pong nakasama o may involvement itong any member of the government which is outside the executive department,” Guevarra said. -NB, GMA News