Perez refutes PCIJ report

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez refuted yesterday the claim of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) that he was involved in irregularities in the prosecution of the plunder charge against jailed former President Joseph Estrada.

Perez, in a statement, said PCIJ writer Malou Mangahas was not fully informed of what was going on in the ongoing prosecution of the plunder cases before the Sandiganbayan.

"Judging from the slant of the article, they interviewed people who were not really in the know," Perez said in the statement.

In one instance, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño even denied that he was interviewed by Mangahas as claimed in the special series The STAR published starting last Tuesday.

The DOJ chief belied PCIJ’s claim that state witnesses in the Estrada plunder case - Social Security System (SSS) president Carlos Arellano and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president Federico Pascual - were granted immunity from criminal prosecution although they "gave so little in terms of testimony."

"The Belle case, where Mr. Estrada received a check for P189.7 million through the Velarde account as commission in exchange for pressuring Arellano and Pascual, is the strongest charge in the plunder case against Estrada and (the) co-accused," Perez said.

He said that in the Belle case the government has a "smoking gun:" the original check For P189.7 million which was issued to Dichaves and deposited in the Velarde account, the deposit slips and other bank records plus the testimonies of Arellano, Pascual and Belle vice chairman Willie Ng Ocier.

Perez denied that government prosecutors were keeping private prosecutors out of the information loop by keeping vital documents in the case.

He claimed that he kept some documents from some of the private prosecutors who came from seven law firms because the law firms represented lawyers who are being implicated in Estrada’s case.

Perez also denied that he ever withheld information regarding his holdings in Belle Resources but stressed that he was no longer involved with the company since the 1980s.