DOJ starts new probe on ‘pork’ cases

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has officially started its reinvestigation on the multibillion-peso Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel scam after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II created a special task force to revisit the case and correct the “miscarriage of justice” in the earlier probe conducted by the previous administration.

“I have already ordered the reorganization of the Task Force on PDAF cases for the purpose of reinvestigation. I designated undersecretary Antonio ‘Richie’ Kho as head of the task force,” he said in a text message from London yesterday.

The new panel replaces the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) task force created by former justice secretary and now detained Sen. Leila de Lima that conducted the fact-finding probe on the scam during the Aquino administration, which led to the plunder indictment of former senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., and other lawmakers and executive officials before the Sandiganbayan.

Aguirre said Kho’s team composed of prosecutors and NBI agents would start their assignment with the affidavit and documentary evidence to be submitted by detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains of the pork barrel scam.

“Just like in the previous investigation, the statements and evidence will be validated through records from relevant implementing agencies and the Commission on Audit. But this time, we can assure the public that there will be no selective justice, unlike what happened in the previous administration,” Aguirre vowed.

The justice chief further bared that the same task force would handle the fact-finding probe on alleged anomalies in the Disbursement Acceleration Program, the economic stimulus program of the Aquino administration.

He said the panel would also meet with Napoles’ lawyer Stephen David and anti-pork advocate Greco Belgica for gathering of evidence.

Earlier, Aguirre revealed that Napoles has implicated at least three senators and two former executive officials in the scam.

Aguirre said Napoles has tagged Senators Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV and Leila de Lima in the anomaly as revealed by David during their meeting last month.

Aguirre disclosed that Drilon, Trillanes and De Lima, as well as several other senators, are included in the affidavit to be submitted by Napoles.

As for De Lima, who was not a lawmaker when the PDAF scam took place, Aguirre said Napoles would explain her involvement in the affidavit.

Aguirre hinted that there are other senators in the list, but suggested the names come from the camp of Napoles and be made public once she files the plunder charges before the DOJ.

Apart from lawmakers, Aguirre further bared that Napoles also tagged at least two executive officials in the previous administration in the PDAF scam.

One of them, he revealed, is former budget secretary Florencio Abad, while the other is a higher Cabinet official he did not name.

Aguirre said Napoles tagged Abad as her mentor or instigator of the anomaly and that she would explain this in her affidavit.