Jinggoy camp wants DOJ exec out of prosecution team in ‘pork’ case

The camp of detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Tuesday formally asked the Sandiganbayan to remove Justice Undersecretary Jose F. Justiniano from the team of state lawyers assigned to handle the pork barrel scam, saying he shouldn’t hold two positions at the same time.

 

“The deputization of Undersecretary Justiniano violates the constitutional prohibition against Cabinet members and their undersecretaries from holding any other office or employment during their tenure,” Flaminiano said, citing Article VII, Section 13 of the Constitution.

 

Justiniano was part of the prosecution team during the impeachment trial of ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona in the Senate in 2012. He was also part of the defense team in the high-profile rape case of US soldier Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, who was accused of raping a Filipina during his stay in the Philippines.

 

Last month, Justiniano was deputized by the Office of the Ombudsman to join the team of state prosecutors assigned to the plunder and graft cases of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla. The three senators are accused of pocketing public funds by diverting their Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations to businesswoman Janet Lim napoles’ bogus NGOs.

All three are detained in Camp Crame – Revilla and Estrada at the PNP Custodial Center and Enrile, at the PNP General Hospital. 

 

Aside from Justiniano, Jarveen Ho and Hazel Deceña-Valdez, two senior state prosecutors of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), also joined the prosecution team. 

 

In their motion, Flaminiano detailed how serving as a prosecutor is an entirely different function from that of a Justice undersecretary.

 

“The function of prosecuting a crime in court is an "office" as the term is used in the Constitution. The functions of an undersecretary of the DOJ would show that the official is tasked to perform policy making functions rather than the professional functions of state prosecutors,” the motion sasi.

 

Estrada’s lawyers also noted how the Justiniano’s appointment by the Ombudsman violates President Aquino’s control over him as a member of the executive branch of government.

 

“The Ombudsman's act of deputizing Usec. Justiniano to act as prosecutor encroaches on the President's control over the executive department. To allow the Ombudsman to deputize an Undersecretary to serve as collaborating counsel of the Special Panel of Prosecutors and "under the control and supervision of the Special Prosecutor," would be an outright disregard of the Principle of Executive Control,” the motion said.

 

“To emphasize, Usecs as officers of the Executive Department are subject to the absolute control of the President. They cannot in any way be subjected to the control of any branch or agency of the government,” it added.

 

The Office of the Ombudsman is an independent body that monitors government officials.

 

Flaminiano also stated that Usec. Justiniano’s deputization also violates the Civil Service Law, which prohibits the appointment of a person in the non-career service from performing duties properly belonging to the career service.

Baseless

 

But in a chance interview with reporters, Justiniano said the grounds for his removal were baseless, since he only receives one salary. 

 

“Double position means double compensation. I was just deputized here, I’m only getting my salary from the Department of Justice. I’m not getting paid by the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said.

 

When asked if he felt that the move was motivated by a threatened defense team, Justiniano merely said that the public “can make their own conclusion.”

 

Meanwhile, Senator Jinggoy Estrada said that their move to remove Justiniano from the prosecution panel is by no means a show of fear.

 

“Is he a threat? Not at all. But it's not a constitutional provision kaya we want to investigate. [Our motion is] based on the ruling before of the Sandiganbayan during our case before of plunder. And it was sustained by the court. Itong mga ito? They're not even a threat,” Estrada said. 

 

Justiniano is set to present primary whistleblower Benhur Luy in the succeeding bail hearings. — RSJ, GMA News