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MANILA, Philippines – Senator Leila de Lima appealed this Saturday to the Court of Appeals (CA) the decision of the Ombudsman’s Office that dismissed the administrative complaint she filed against the Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra for the use of convicted persons as state witnesses.
In 2018, De Lima filed the gross negligence complaint against the Secretary of Justice for using convicted drug traffickers incarcerated in New Bilibid prison as state witnesses against him instead of prosecuting them. De Lima said this was a violation of the Witness Protection, Safety and Benefits Program (WPSBP).
However, the Ombudsman dismissed the complaint, saying that the WPSBP does not apply if the crime is “committed in prison and the only witnesses are convicted criminals.”
In his appeal to the CA, De Lima said that the Ombudsman’s Office “invented” the exemption in the WPSBP.
“The WPSBP Act prohibits those convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude from becoming state witnesses. The Bilibid convicts turned into state witnesses against De Lima by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of former Secretary Aguirre, and continued by Guevarra, were convicted of heinous crimes, including kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking, among others, ”said De Lima.
The senator, who is being held at the Custody Center of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame on drug charges, also described the action of the Ombudsman’s Office as “absurd and ridiculous” for not continuing with the investigation against Guevarra.
According to the Ombudsman’s Office, he cannot continue his investigation because Guevarra refused to submit the DOJ’s certification on the status of criminal witnesses convicted under the WPSBP. Guevarra told the Ombudsman that these data are “confidential.”
“[I]If this type of culture and thinking in the Ombudsman’s Office rots, the constitutional office could also be abolished because it was neutralized by its own officials, ”De Lima said in his appeal.
/ MUF
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