Guevarra: Aguirre had nothing to do with shredding of DOJ documents

MANILA, Philippines — Former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II did not order the shredding of papers prior to the change of leadership at the department, initial findings of the Department of Justice showed.

In a message to reporters, Guevarra confirmed that trash bags containing shredded papers came from the Office of the Justice Secretary, but he cleared Aguirre of ordering the shredding.

“It looks like Aguirre’s staff took it upon themselves to dispose of unimportant papers. That’s why the (Office of the Secretary) was so bare and empty when I came in,” Guevarra added.

READ: Aguirre: No order to shred papers, but what's wrong with waste disposal?

Last week, Guevarra said that the DOJ would initiate a probe into the reported shredding of voluminous documents in the Office of the Justice Secretary before Aguirre stepped down. He said that they would determine what kinds of documents were disposed of.

This was after photos showing several plastic bags believed to be containing shredded DOJ documents circulated on social media. The said shredding was done days before Aguirre vacated his post on April 5.

But Guevarra said their initial probe shows that no important document was disposed of by his predecessor’s staff: “The papers shredded were waste papers like drafts, duplicates, invitations and the like, and that no important file or document seemed to be missing, at least as of today [April 22].”

Aguirre, whose stint as justice chief was hounded by controversy, already dispelled rumors that he ordered the shredding of documents.

He added: “Assuming for the sake of argument that it was true, what is wrong with shredding papers when what were shredded were already considered waste?”

Before Aguirre left his office, several high-profile cases were left pending review, including:

• the dismissal of drug raps against several executives of the Bureau of Customs, including former ex-Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon
• the state witness application of Janet Napoles, alleged mastermind of pork barrel scam
• the reopening of the drug raps against Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim and a dozen others.