The Justice department on Sunday downplayed the relevance of the petition of the supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo seeking the immediate dismissal of the criminal charges against her over her involvement in the alleged plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the petition of the group “Team Pilipinas” was irrelevant in the department’s preliminary investigation of the sedition, libel and estafa charges filed against Robredo and 34 other opposition figures.
“The DOJ considers petitions, letters or rallies as mere expressions of opinion. They do not affect in any way the disposition of the case on the merits,” Guevarra said.
In other developments:
• Robredo said Sunday Solicitor General Jose Calida should shift his attention to the more than a million backlog of cases in his office”•rather than meddling in the complaints targeting the perceived critics of the administration.
She questioned the involvement of Calida’s office in the sedition complaint filed against her and other opposition figures based on the allegations of Peter Joemel Advincula.
• Senator Leila de Lima on Sunday denounced the sedition charges filed against her and other opposition figures, which she called “sham cases,” as she accused the Duterte administration of “weaponizing” the law.
In a statement, De Lima said she received a subpoena over the sedition charge on July 26.
“Walang kakwenta-kwenta pero malaking perwisyo na naman ito tulad ng mga drug cases ko,” said the senator who was detained over charges related to illegal drugs.
• The vicar general of the Diocese of Cubao, Steven Zabala, rejected the sedition allegations against Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, who is among those accused over the viral videos of Peter “Bikoy” Advincula.
“That is beyond belief because it is not true,” Zabala said in his homily on Saturday evening, echoing the statement of Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Romulo Valles on the issue.
“For the record, our bishop has never met Peter ‘Bikoy’ Advincula. And so it is beyond belief how he had implicated our bishop as a conspirator…that our bishop would conspire to bring down this government,” Zabala said.
Guevarra said the policy of the DOJ was to resolve cases on the basis of evidence only and nothing else.
But he assured Robredo’s supporters that the charges would be resolved fairly and swiftly and that the respondents would be accorded ample opportunities to disprove the allegations against them.
He said he had directed the panel of prosecutors to immediately start the hearing and resolve the case.
Last week, the DOJ panel summoned Robredo and other respondents to a preliminary investigation hearing on Aug. 9.
The department is expected to ask the respondents to answer the charges and submit counter-affidavits. The panel would then require the parties to submit their rejoinders before submitting the case for resolution.
Guevarra also rejected the allegations that the charges were meant to silence the opposition.
“The DOJ is not a weapon for oppression or persecution. We shall go only by the evidence presented before us and we don’t care who gets indicted and who goes Scot-free,” Guevarra said.
“But once probable cause is determined and a criminal case is filed in court, the DOJ will exert the full force of the law to secure a conviction.”
In its petition, Team Pilipinas, represented by Bianca Lacaba, asked the DOJ to immediately dismiss the criminal complaint against Robredo, saying the charges were “baseless.”
The groups said to prosecute Robredo and remove her from office based on “bogus allegations” from Peter Joemel Advincula “is a clear violation of the mandate of the people and an outright insult to our democracy.”
Advincula is the “Bikoy” in the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” videos who accused Robredo and other opposition personalities of being behind the ouster plot.