DOJ chief stands by staff, orders case-fixing probe

What "little secretary"?

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez denied yesterday that there was anyone other than him that was calling the shots in his department, and ordered a probe on allegations of case-fixing by an underling.

He however stood by his staff, one of whom has been accused by department officials of "centralizing" operations, departing from usual procedures, and angling for bribes.

"I do not have a little secretary. What I have is a chief of staff who executes all my orders. She cannot act on her own. She acts only whenever I order her to do so," he told a briefing, his controversial chief of staff Pamela Escobar seated beside him.

Sought for comment, Escobar, a senior state prosecutor, told justice reporters she was just "implementing" Perez’s orders. "I have not done anything wrong," she said, refusing to elaborate.

Perez nevertheless said he has designated Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño to head the panel that will investigate the case in which Escobar had allegedly intervened and demanded money from a litigant.

"I directed Zuño to conduct the necessary investigation. This is to disabuse the mind of the public and in fairness to all the parties concerned," he explained, and stressed that he was still running the show at the DOJ.

Perez confirmed the STAR report that petition-for-review cases supposedly for Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez are now in his office, but clarified that these are just being "sorted out" and "segregated."

"There is nothing sinister about this. There is nothing wrong about it," he said.

He further said that the transfer of Undersecretary Manuel Teehankee’s duties to Gutierrez was just a "rotation," the idea being that the assignment of cases would be rotated.

But reliable sources said rotations are very rare and not all too soon. "Usually, cases assigned to an undersecretary are fixed. Sometimes, there are rotations but it takes years," the source said.