AFTER filing the third and last batch of pork barrel fund misuse cases, the Office of the Ombudsman said Friday it is open to accepting other related cases against lawmakers.
Assistant Ombudsman Asyrman Rafanan said other people could initiate the filing of graft cases after lawyer Levito Baligod claimed there were still cases on the misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund that had not yet been filed.
“Any party can file complaints,” he said.
Baligod reacted to the filing by the Department of Justice through the National Bureau of Investigation of the last batch of cases of pork barrel fund misuse against nine people: Senator Gregorio Honasan II (P1.75 million), Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing (P600,000), former Pangasinan Rep. and incumbent Abono party-list Rep. Conrado Estrella III (P45.03 million), former Abono party-list Rep. Robert Raymund Estrella (P22.675 million), former La Union Rep. Manuel
Ortega (P14.35 million), former La Union Rep. Victor Francisco Ortega (P9.58 million), former Zamboanga del Sur Rep. Isidro E. Real Jr. (P3.25 million), Cagayan de Oro City
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (P2.099 million), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general Emmanuel Joel Villanueva
(P2.33 million).
They were charged before the Ombudsman with misuse of public funds, direct bribery and corruption.
Baligod, one of the people who exposed the pork barrel scam, challenged the Justice Department why there would be no more PDAF cases to be filed.
Instead of those nine accused in the third batch of cases, he said, there should have been 29 lawmakers involved.
He said he was studying the filing of separate complaints against those not included in the recent charges.
