EX-NEGROS Oriental representative Jacinto Paras on Monday filed abduction, obstruction of justice and wire-tapping charges against Senator Risa Hontiveros before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly keeping minor witnesses in her custody.
He said Hontiveros must be held liable for abducting and influencing the children aged 13, nine and six to leave their parents and to stay in a safe house without informing the authorities.
His accusation arose from the senator’s custody of the witnesses from Aug. 19 to Sept. 3. He said she only produced them on Sept. 4 to testify in the Senate inquiry in connection with the killing of Grade 11 student Kian Loyd delos Santos.
But Hontiveros on Monday branded as a “desperate attempt” the cases filed against her by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.
In a statement, Hontiveros said the charges intended to deflect public attention away from the Aguirre/text conversation inadvertently captured by someone’s camera.
She said that “caught them red-handed plotting against me during a Senate hearing inside the Senate.
She said that also comfirmed the conspiracy hatched by Aguirre and his VACC to “expedite” the filing of cases against her.
She said that also confirmed that the “Cong. Jing” whom Aguirre was texting was former representative Jacinto Paras.
Paras said Hontiveros received a journalist’s photograph that unlawfully recorded Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III’s text messages with him.
He said that act fell under wiretapping and cited the law.
“It shall be unlawful for any person, not being authorized by all the parties to any private communication or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable, or by using another device or arrangement, to secretly overhear, intercept or record such communication,” Paras said.
He said Hontiveros was also liable for obstruction of justice for refusing to turn over the 13-year-old minor witness to the Public Attorney’s Office and the National Bureau of Investigation conducting the probe. Rio N. Araja and Macon Ramos-Araneta