Palace ready to augment Ombudsman's security

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang on Saturday said that it is ready to assign more security men to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, who revealed that she had received a death threat apparently related to a government probe on the pork barrel scam that she is leading.

“Katulad nung ibinunyag ni Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales kahapon, siyempre handa naman kaming tumulong at magbigay ng karagdagang seguridad sa kanya kapag hiningi niya ito,” Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over state-run radio Radyo ng Bayan.

Morales revealed that her office received an anonymous call at around 1 p.m. Friday.

"I wasn't around, I was at the ADB. Someone wanted to scare me, going slow on this. It was a phone call,” she said.

Morales was at the Asian Development Bank forum on public governance when the call was received by her office.

"I'm not scared. Maybe they're scared. Sinong tinakot nila?" she said.

Morales lead the eight-member Interagency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council that had been tasked to investigate the multi-billion pork barrel fund scam involving several lawmakers and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

The investigation would be based on the special report of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the Priority Development Assistance Fund allocated to lawmakers from 2007 to 2009.

The COA and the Department of Justice are also member-agencies of the investigating group.

Meanwhile, Valte also assured that the government is also ready to secure the whistleblower of the scam.

After Benhur Luy, a relative and former employee of Napoles, several witnesses have already submitted their affidavits on the pork barrel scam at the National Bureau of Investigation, which is under the DOJ's jurisdiction.