Ombudsman delays filing of case vs Perez in court

It may take a few more days for the Ombudsman to file graft, extortion and falsification of public documents charges against former justice secretary Hernando Perez.

In a statement, the Ombudsman panel handling the case, said it would have to review the memorandum for reconsideration submitted by Perez‘s lawyers as well as the "other arguments raised by both parties" before criminal charges could be filed against Perez.

"The panel will consider this and other arguments raised by both parties. It shall resolve all these matters in due time," Jose de Jesus, chairman of the panel, said.

The case stemmed from allegations by former congressman Mark Jimenez that Perez extorted $2 million from him in exchange for easing the pressure on him to implicate prominent members of the Estrada administration in the plunder case against the deposed president. Jimenez filed the extortion case with the Ombudsman in 2000.

The Estrada camp said the $2 million was a bribe from Argentine firm Industrias Metallurgicas Perscarmona, SA (IMPSA) so it could bag the build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer contract for the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydroelectric plant. Sen. Panfilo Lacson said $14 million actually changed hands.

Early this week, Ombudsman Merceditas Guiterrez said there was basis for indicting Perez, but the latter decried the timing of the Ombudsman’s ruling. Indicted with Perez are his wife, brother-in-law, and business partner Ernest Escaler.

In a 44-page memorandum for reconsideration filed last Thursday, Perez, through his lawyers from the Balgos and Perez law firm, questioned the Ombudsman’s alleged foot-dragging in the case.

"According to her, there was delay because of the complexities of the issues raised and because of ‘difficulty of obtaining documents.’ The issues became complicated because the Ombudsman went out of her way and beyond her role in a preliminary investigation. She took it upon herself to prove what the complainant Mario B. Crespo aka. Mark Jimenez failed to do," Perez said in the memorandum.

"She became not only the investigator, but also the prosecutor, a role foreign to her in a preliminary investigation. Yet, having made the issues complicated, she nevertheless would allow only five days for the respondents herein to seek for a reconsideration," Perez said.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, meanwhile, said there may be no more time for the current Senate to complete a new inquiry into the alleged $14 million payoff involving IMPSA and some government officials.

"Because of the complication (of the case). There will be many witnesses who would be summoned. This will take some time. I am open to anything as long as there is a resolution, when there is a resolution that is an order," Arroyo, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said.

Earlier, Sen. Franklin Drilon and Lacson pushed for a new Senate investigation of the case.

IMPSA reportedly was able to bag the build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer contract for the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydroelectric plant by bribing government officials.

With barely three weeks left in Congress’ session days, Arroyo told dzMM there might be not enough time for Congress to discuss the IMPSA deal. But he stressed an inquiry is likely to push through once a resolution calling for one is filed.

He said the Senate, under President Manuel Villar Jr., had other priority bills waiting to be wrapped up.

In a press statement, Sen. Arroyo said the Blue Ribbon committee plays only a secondary role in the inquiry being pushed by Lacson and Drilon.   

Arroyo said he learned from Emilia Pueyo, director general of the Blue Ribbon, that the committee would play second fiddle to the committee on government corporations and public enterprises now headed by Sen. Richard Gordon.

"There was an IMPSA resolution some years ago but to the best of her recollection, the Blue Ribbon was a secondary committee," Arroyo said.

The first Senate investigation of the case in 2003 was spearheaded by the committee on government corporations and public enterprises headed by then Sen. John Osmeña.

It was during the first Senate investigation of the case when Estrada claimed that Jimenez, acting on behalf of IMPSA, lobbied for a sovereign guarantee for the IMPSA project. — With Christina Mendez