[size=18px]Here comes the demolition crew vs witness[/size]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE attacks begin.
The NBI yesterday presented two persons who said Wilfredo Mayor, a witness in the Senate inquiry into the jueteng scandal, was a liar and a drug user who has a string of criminal cases.
Rizalino Serilla of Daraga, Albay, and Nante Bodino of Tobaco, also in Albay, made the statements in a press conference called by NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco.
The two supposedly approached NBI men who went to Albay to gather information on Mayor.
Mayor, a former jueteng operator, told the start of the Senate’s inquiry last Monday that presidential son Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo (Lakas, Pampanga), four other current and former congressmen, and PNP chief Arturo Lomibao were recipients of jueteng money.
Mayor is a witness of Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a long-time anti-jueteng crusader. Cruz’ statement that jueteng is worse now than during the Estrada administration was among factors that triggered the Senate inquiry.
Serilla and Bodino said they were former jueteng buddies of Mayor and all three of them were mere fixers who get only 1 percent of the total jueteng take, earning about P15,000 monthly.
Serilla said that the weekend before Mayor appeared before the Senate, he attended the wake of a relative of Mayor, where he heard that an incumbent senator paid Mayor P5 million to start a demolition job on the Arroyo family.
Serilla would not identify the senator but said he has long been a political figure. The senator allegedly approached Mayor a month ago.
"Ang sabi sa akin nung mga kamag-anak niya, ‘Tinutoo na ni Boy (Mayor) na gagawa siya ng malaking istoryang pasasabugin. Isisiwalat na niya ang kasinungalingan niya.’ Kaya yang si Cruz, nakikisakay na lang yang paring yan sa isyu," Serilla said.
Mayor has been in Cruz’ custody since May.
Serilla and Bodino said Mayor could not have known about any jueteng payola allegedly given to Rep. Arroyo or other officials because he was never a "bangka" or jueteng operator.
The NBI said the Commission on Elections disqualified Mayor from running as mayor in Daraga, Albay because of a prior conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude as well as a number of estafa cases.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez rejected calls to inhibit himself from investigations into the allegations.
Gonzalez, head of a special jueteng committee under the DOJ, has received flak even from administration senators for threatening witnesses with criminal charges like perjury, libel and illegal gambling.
Senate President Franklin Drilon has asked Gonzalez to turn over the special committee to Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño.
Gonzalez said: "My boss is the President, so I will just wait for what the President says… Anybody can move for an inhibition, even the courts, but in this case, I’m not the only one investigating the case. This is a panel."
Cruz said Gonzalez’ threats and the libel charges are scaring witnesses away, including a "top honcho" in the jueteng circle.
"He is having second thoughts of surfacing following the charges against Wilfredo Mayor," Cruz said.
He said the new witness was a bagman who collected and delivered money to jueteng protectors. His revelation, Cruz said, could lead to a situation graver than that which caused Estrada’s ouster.
"Basta pag nagsalita ito, tapos na ang boksing," he said.
He told Gonzalez to just "help investigators ferret out the truth."
He said his witnesses would not come out and risk their lives "if they do not have proof."
Gonzalez said it is not the special committee would file charges against Mayor but those who were aggrieved by his statements before the Senate hearing.
He said he specifically appointed three DOJ undersecretaries, two of whom were not his appointees, and Zuño as members of the special panel to make sure there would be no railroading of investigation.
"If anybody doubts my probity, there are four others who can always check on what we are doing. That was precisely the reason why we set up a five-man committee. Any person aggrieved can file with us or with any fiscal. When somebody files a case then that is time when we will entertain it," he said.
To erase doubts he was after the destruction of Mayor’s credibility, Gonzalez said he would refer to the Manila Prosecutor’s Office the libel and perjury charges filed before the DOJ by Arturo Naguit, Leon Katigbak and Rene Maglanque who were identified by Mayor as collectors for Rep. Arroyo.
Citing Section 5 of PD 1732 (anti-gambling law), Gonzalez said no witness is immune from charges of perjury and contempt.
"That is why even in Congress, witnesses who are placed under oath are allowed to have counsel because they might incriminate themselves. That is recognized in any proceeding. If anybody who wants to charge him, nobody can stop him. It’s up to the court later on or prosecutor who will hear the case in preliminary investigation to determine the existence of probable cause," he said.
Gonzales took a snipe at the Senate.
"Why don’t you compare the kinds of witnesses that we have invited to the ones in the Senate? We have invited, governors, mayors, generals. That is the quality of the witnesses that we have invited," he said.
The DOJ has invited Cruz and PNP and local officials.
Gonzalez said the justice department would also ask jueteng operators to testify "but we are starting with these people who may have more knowledge and tell us truthfully because of their status."
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) said the filing of charges against Mayor is "part of the administration tactics to intimidate witnesses from coming forward and from implicating people identified with the administration in the jueteng scandal."
Pimentel said if Naguit, Maglanque and Katigbak really want to disprove Mayor’s accusations, they can do so by testifying before the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs and committee on games and amusement.
"That is the best forum where they can ventilate their side because that was where the accusation was made," he said.
Pimentel said while Malacañang kept saying it would fully cooperate with the Senate inquiry, it has set in motion "an organized campaign to disrupt the process and to dissuade witnesses from testifying."
Senators Miriam Santiago and Manuel Villar said persons testifying during formal investigations of the Senate are immune from criminal prosecution as guaranteed by the constitutional provision on privileged information.
Santiago said Mayor could not be charged with libel before the justice department by persons who were slighted by his testimony.
Mayor has said he paid P600,000 a month in jueteng protection money in 2002 to Rep. Arroyo through Naguit, his alleged bagman and former Minalin, Pampanga vice mayor.
He said he inked the deal with Naguit in a meeting at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City. Naguit was supposedly accompanied by Maglanque, former DOTC assistant secretary, and Katigbak, a stockbroker.
Santiago said Senators Manuel "Lito" Lapid and Villar, chairmen of the Senate committees on games, amusement and on sports and public order and illegal drugs, extended immunity to Mayor before he made his testimony.
"That is allowed by the existing law, the 2004 revised anti-jueteng law," Santiago said. "The immunity will cover any criminal prosecution outside of the Senate."
Villar agreed with Santiago. He said witnesses who appear in Senate investigation "are only doing what is required of them, that is, to answer the questions posed by the senators."
Villar said the Senate legal staff has issued an opinion that testimonies made during Senate hearings are privileged information that could not be questioned in the courts or any investigative body.
Santiago and Villar said the Senate has control mechanisms that would address concerns such as the possibility of witnesses lying under oath or fabricating testimonies and evidence.
Santiago said the Senate could file perjury charges or cite in contempt witnesses who lie under oath.
"Only the Senate committee will have the jurisdiction to charge Mr. Mayor or any other witnesses criminally, but only because they misbehaved. Other government officials are prohibited by the law from charging those witnesses with any criminal offense because they have already been granted immunity by the Senate," Santiago said.
Villar said witnesses could also be charged with oral defamation or slander for lying before senators.
Santiago also said: "Any agency that facilitates the filing of criminal charges against witnesses appearing in a formal investigation by the Senate, in effect, that agency would be casting a veto on what the Senate has decided to do. It can even derail completely the investigation simply by threatening with criminal prosecution those who testify before the Senate."
Former Senators Rene Saguisag and Ernesto Maceda said senators could cite in contempt Gonzalez, Naguit, Maglanque and Katigbak for trying to "terrorize" Mayor.
Saguisag said the Constitution states that "anything said in Senate hearings cannot be questioned in any other place except in the Senate."
"Senators could ask the petitioners and Secretary Gonzalez why they should not be cited in contempt of the Senate for interfering in their legislative functions and for threatening the witness," Saguisag said.
Saguisag said Gonzalez, himself a lawyer, and the legal counsels of the three petitioners should have known they could not sue Mayor because of what he exposed during the Senate inquiry.
"They should consult and confront their lawyers about this," Saguisag said. "Secretary Gonzalez should not entertain the complaints or else, he will really be courting the contempt of the Senate."
Maceda, asked why the libel charges where filed with the DOJ, said, "The answer is that this is part of Secretary Raul Gonzalez’ scheme to threaten the witness and other witnesses who are expected to come out."
Saguisag said Gonzalez and his three "cohorts" should "review their tactic because this is a gross disregard of the Constitution."
Saguisag said if the Senate does not act on Gonzalez’ tactics, "no one would ever take the witness stand in the Senate hearing."
Sen. Panfilo Lacson told Gonzalez that with the way he has been trying to harass potential witnesses, he might find a man of the cloth among those seeking to block his confirmation as DOJ secretary. – Evangeline de Vera, JP Lopez, Albert Castro, Joan Dairo and Peter Tabingo
Originally Posted by FK
imoha sab na bai nga mo too ka sa side ni GMA, kay you are pro. Wala ko kapaminaw sa news... onsa ang ingon sa witness nila Arroyo?
Mike and Mikey Arroyo linked to jueteng!
........
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