‘Hear no evil’ lawyer to focus on corruption cases

MANILA, Philippines - Prosecution of corruption and drug cases will be the priority of veteran lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre II once he assumes the leadership of the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the administration of incoming president Rodrigo Duterte.

Aguirre caught the public’s attention when, as a private prosecutor in the impeachment trial of the late Renato Corona in 2012, he covered his ears during a hearing. He said he could not stand the shrill scolding by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

“We will spare no one; we will investigate regardless of who is involved,” Aguirre said in an interview yesterday. “Corruption and drug cases will be priorities under the Duterte administration.”

Aguirre also vowed to pursue the ongoing cleansing at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, including the seizure of contraband from inmates.

He said he also sees as a challenge the pursuit of the investigation and case building of pork barrel scam cases initiated by the outgoing administration.

He added Duterte has already given him several instructions, but they have yet to discuss specifics.

Among the cases pending with the DOJ are criminal charges against 90 commanders and members of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups tagged in the death of Special Action Force (SAF) commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in January last year.

The DOJ is also currently conducting preliminary investigation on the money laundering case stemming from the $80.9-million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank and laundered in Manila.

“I’m very much honored and humbled by president Rody naming me as his secretary of justice,” Aguirre said in a separate interview in Davao City. Aguirre clarified he would not be occupying the post for just one year.

“I’m not a caretaker. This will be full term. I will stay in the post and it will depend upon the pleasure of the president,” he said.

Duterte previously said he would let his defeated runningmate Sen. Alan Cayetano to choose whether to serve as justice or foreign affairs secretary.

He said the appointee to the post that Cayetano chooses would only serve in an acting capacity.

Under the law, a losing candidate cannot occupy an appointive post within a year from the elections.

He added he would not hesitate to prosecute outgoing Aquino administration officials found to have stolen taxpayers’ money.

“We have to apply the law. It’s as simple at that. If it’s necessary that we have to go after some officials of the past administration, we have to do it. You have to apply the law no matter who gets hurt,” Aguirre said.

DOJ prosecutors immediately welcomed the imminent appointment of Aguirre as the next secretary.

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, chief of the DOJ’s prosecutorial arm, called Aguirre’s appointment “a very positive move” in the department.

“Attorney Aguirre has a vast experience in the practice of law and is an esteemed member of the Bar and respected in the legal profession. We are elated to hear his appointment and we will give him our wholehearted support in his plans and programs to enhance the delivery of justice to our people,” he said in a text message to reporters.

Acting Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas, for his part, said he respects the decision of Duterte to appoint Aguirre as his replacement. “We all should respect such decision. Whoever is chosen as the next secretary of justice, all I have for him is my very best wishes for a fruitful stint – all in the name of service to the Filipino people,” he said.

Aguirre, who was head of Duterte’s legal team during the campaign, was a classmate and fraternity brother of the incoming president at the San Beda College law school.

He graduated at the top of his class and passed the Bar exams in 1971 as one of the topnotchers with a rating of 85.25 percent.

His late father Alfaro Aguirre – a municipal mayor – was chairman of the Liberal Party for nearly 40 years.

Aguirre first rose to prominence when he served as lead counsel of Hubert Webb in the Vizconde case.

He was also deputy counsel for the Feliciano Commission’s fact-finding investigation on the Oakwood mutiny in 2003 where he conducted direct examination of then Navy officer and now Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other mutineers who participated in a failed takeover of a Makati City hotel.

In 2012, he was one of the private prosecutors tapped in the impeachment trial of the late former chief justice Renato Corona.

In one of the hearings, he got a dressing down from Santiago for covering his ears, supposedly because he could no longer stand the senator’s “shrill voice.”

In Davao City, former agriculture secretary Carlos Dominguez has accepted the top finance post offered by the incoming president.

Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said Dominguez had initially declined the position due to “personal reasons,” only to have “a change of heart.”

Former Securities and Exchange Commission chief Perfecto Yasay has also accepted Duterte’s offer to serve as acting foreign affairs secretary.

This was according to Peter Laviña, Duterte’s campaign spokesman and a member of his transition team, on his Facebook account.

Yasay testified during the impeachment trial of then president Joseph Estrada in 2001. He ran for vice president in 2010 but lost. 

Choose execs wisely

As the search for Cabinet officials continues, Social Watch Philippines is urging Duterte to broaden his base for selection of Cabinet members amid reports his choices were limited to classmates and friends.

“There is space for them (political appointees). But in the Cabinet which is the deliverer of services, it is advantageous to have professionals. I hope they realize it, especially in the economic team,” Social Watch convenor and UP professor Leonor Briones said.

Still, Briones said Duterte’s move of choosing friends and classmates for top posts is unsurprising, as presidents usually appoint people they trust.

President Aquino came under fire less than a year after he assumed office for allegedly favoring the appointment of his classmates, friends and shooting buddies.

“Let’s be mindful of gender balance, regional balance. Our government is not a government of a city, not of a province and region. It is a government of one country with a constituency of more than 100 million people divided into different sectors,” Briones said.

She added Duterte’s economic team should prepare macroeconomic and fiscal policies and harmonize his administration’s development plan.

Duterte has yet to name his top officials for the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Budget and Management.

Environmentalists, for their part, have expressed disappointment with Duterte’s possible choices for Cabinet posts.

“Most of the names being floated as appointees are either beholden to mining and fossil fuel companies, or have had a hand in the widespread environmental destruction and loss of livelihood experienced by communities in the past years,” said Norie Garcia, Partnership and Advocacy director of ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Inc., one of the convenors of the Green Thumb Coalition (GTC).

Some of the names being considered for Cabinet positions are former Sagittarius Mines Board chairman Gilbert Teodoro for the defense department and former Shell CEO Edgar Chua for energy.

“The proposed Tampakan mining operations pushed for by Teodoro’s Sagittarius Mines in General Santos City, for example, have been met by continuous resistance from the part of communities,” said Garcia.

“While the South Cotabato Provincial Environment Code explicitly totally bans open-pit mining in the area, Executive Order 79 was issued by the Aquino administration overriding local government policies on mining,” she added.

Garcia emphasized that the people of Mindanao, who are among Duterte’s most passionate supporters, will be at the losing end if the current policies on mining are not changed.

“And yet, we are giving an individual from the mining industry access to mobilizing arms which may be used to their own interests,” she added.

“Having an energy secretary who represents the interests of the primary polluters in the country and in the world does not follow with the promise of change Duterte has repeatedly pronounced during his campaign,” said Sanlakas secretary-general Aaron Pedrosa.  – Alexis Romero, Romina Cabrera, Louise Maureen Simeon, Rhodina Villanueva