Palace says it’s harder to establish corruption involving congressmen than judges protecting drug lords

November 24, 2020

Malacanang said on Tuesday it is more difficult to prove corruption involving congressmen than judges who acquitted an alleged drug lord.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte refused to divulge the names of lawmakers who allegedly received kickbacks from government projects in their localities despite the result of an investigation by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.

Duterte, in a televised message on Monday night, said he would rather forward the PACC report to the Office of the Ombudsman so that it could conduct the probe as he declined to name the congressmen who were allegedly involved in the irregularities, citing separation of powers between the executive and legislative.

Asked if Duterte could have allies in Congress identified in the PACC report that prompted him not to divulge the names, Roque said, "It's not, I think it's evidentiary."

"The President knows that it is easy to establish corruption of the judges who acquitted drug lords and it is more difficult to prove these series of acts when it comes to alleged corruption mentioned by the PACC," he said.

Asked also on what could be a double standard of Duterte when it came to detained Senator Leila de Lima when he publicly made allegations about her supposed involvement in illegal drug trade, Roque said, "In the case of Leila de Lima, the evidence was very strong that she was really involved in the illegal drug trade."

He claimed there were 11 witnesses who testified against the opposition senator who claimed Duterte was allegedly involved in extrajudicial killings even when he was mayor of Davao City.

"So between that (of De Lima's) and the allegations in choosing the favored contractor and asking for percentage, it's difficult to prove that. So, he gave that to the Ombudsman," he said.

Roque added that Duterte, a former prosecutor, knows how to evaluate the evidence.

"So, it's as clear as the sun rises the liability of Leila de Lima in illegal drug trafficking. And when it comes to the congressmen who allegedly colluded with the contractors, the Ombudsman is more competent to evaluate because that is the reason why the (Office of the) Ombudsman was established, whereas in drug trafficking that's really a jurisdiction of the public prosecutors and not the specialized prosecutors under the Office of the Ombudsman," he said.

De Lima, who has been detained for her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary when she was still the secretary of the Department of Justice in the previous administration, has been denying the allegations, saying she has been politically persecuted. Celerina Monte/DMS