Ombudsman Morales says DOJ’s plan to reopen PDAF scam probe ‘vague’

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales wants to be enlightened on Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s statement that the Department of Justice (DOJ) intends to conduct a reinvestigation on the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam.

“The revising and re-opening of PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) cases is vague, I don’t understand. I must confess,” Morales said in a taped press conference, a portion of which was aired on GMA News’ “Unang Balita” on Tuesday.

The Unang Balita report quoted Morales as saying that she cannot see the basis of Aguirre for saying that the investigation of the previous administration on the pork barrel anomaly was “selective.”

Morales maintained that her Office was fair in investigating and prosecuting officials allegedly involved in the pork barrel scam.

Morales said that under the Republic Act 6770 or the Ombudsman Charter, the anti-graft body must prioritize high-profile cases or those involving high-ranking officials or huge amounts of public funds.

Morales said this was the reason why in 2013, her office decided to prioritize the investigation on the complaints against three then senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada.

Plunder and graft cases were filed by the Ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan against Enrile, Revilla and Estrada in June 2014.

Also charged with Enrile, Revilla and Estrada were the alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and several other former government officials.

In February 2015 and April 2016, two more batches of cases were filed by the Ombudsman at the Sandiganbayan against 10 former and incumbent congressmen in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Revilla and Estrada have repeatedly said that the previous administration of President Benigno Aquino III was selective in its investigation on the pork barrel scam, prosecuting only those who belonged to the opposition.

In a recent press conference, President Rodrigo Duterte said the pork barrel anomaly deserves a “second look” as there are some revealing things from Napoles herself that the public has yet to know.

Suppressed evidence

Following Duterte’s statement, Aguirre said his office plans to reopen the investigation on the scam, saying that the previous administration “suppressed” the evidence against certain politicians.

“What I know is that the DOJ then suppressed evidence against other politicians,” Aguirre said in an interview with reporters last week.

“When Napoles first surfaced, she was brought to Malacañang and Mar (Roxas) accompanied her in Camp Crame. The question is why? They were obviously hiding something,” he added.

Former Justice secretary and now Sen. Leila De Lima and Morales had denied Aguirre’s allegation.

"That's not true. We decide which case should be investigated based on the amount. The higher the amount, the priority is to investigate these PDAFs," Morales said in a recent interview at the sidelines of the House of Representatives’ hearing of the Ombudsman’s proposed budget for 2017. —ALG, GMA News