Aguirre files case vs Hontiveros before Pasay prosecutors office

October 2, 2017

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday file a wiretapping complaint against Senator Risa Hontiveros.

In a complaint filed before the Pasay City prosecutors' office, Aguirre accused Hontiveros of violating the Anti-Wiretapping Law by taking a photo of his text message exchange with former Negros Oriental Representative Jacinto Paras and making it public during the hearing of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs last Sept. 5.

Aguirre said Hontiveros violated section 1 of R.A. 4200 when she and her co-conspirators recorded the text messages from his cellular phone "without being authorized by all the parties to a private communication."

The complaint named other unidentified individuals as respondents.

Paras also filed a similar complaint against Hontiveros before the Office of the Ombudsman earlier, citing the same allegation.

Aguirre stressed that he decided to file the complaint before the prosecutor's office instead of the Ombudsman office.

“After further study, I came to the conclusion that it is the civil courts and the National Prosecution Service that have jurisdiction over the cases because the offenses were committed when Sen. Risa was not in the performance of her official duties,” he said.

Aguirre also filed a complaint before the Senate ethics committee against Hontiveros.

Aguirre also sought the ouster of the opposition senator from the Senate, describing her acts as "unethical and very unbecoming of public servant.”

“It was premeditated in a sense that they were really guarding my cellphone,” Aguirre said in an interview. DMS