GMA NEWS: SEPT. 21, 2013 Palace: Up to AMLC to freeze accounts of those charged with plunder in pork barrel scam It is up to the Anti-Money Laundering Council to take the needed steps to freeze the bank accounts of lawmakers and other personalities charged with plunder over the P10-billion pork barrel scam, Malacañang said Saturday. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the work of the executive branch via the Department of Justice was to investigate the mess and file complaints against the personalities before the Office of the Ombudsman. “Iiwanan namin sa AMLC kung ano ang kanilang magiging hakbang. Sa amin what came out of the DOJ are the charges ... Dadaan pa yan sa preliminary investigation sa Office of the Ombudsman (We will leave to the AMLC to take the needed steps. From the end of the executive branch, complaints had been filed, and the Ombudsman will hold a preliminary investigation),” she said on government-run dzRB radio. Earlier this week, the DOJ filed plunder and graft charges against three senators and more than 30 others for the pork barrel scam mess involving trader Janet Lim-Napoles. The charges stemmed from the use of fake non-government organizations to siphon funds from lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations. However, several of those facing the charges were reported to have already left the country. TRO on watchlist Meanwhile, Valte said a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court was the reason why many of those linked to the pork barrel scam managed to leave the country. She said this was unlike in November 2011, when the watchlist of the Department of Justice was active, and blocked former President Gloria Arroyo from leaving the country. “Na-TRO ng Supreme Court ang watchlist power ng DOJ precisely because of the case of the former president, the petition they filed in the Supreme Court (The Supreme Court issued a TRO against the watchlist power of the DOJ because of the case of the former president, the petition her camp filed in the SC),” she said. “Hindi sa walang ginagawa ang DOJ or BI, naka-TRO ang watchlist power ng DOJ (It’s not a case of the DOJ or BI being negligent. It’s that the DOJ’s watchlist power has been restrained by a TRO),” she said. In November 2011, the DOJ did not act on a TRO issued by the SC that would have allowed Mrs. Arroyo to go abroad and seek medical treatment. At the time, the DOJ through the Immigration Bureau blocked Arroyo from leaving the country despite a TRO the high court issued against the DOJ’s watch list order on the former Philippine leader earlier in the day. Then court administrator and SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez had said the high court announced its ruling at 3 p.m. and came out with the hard (printed) copy of the TRO past 5 p.m. Marquez said the DOJ refused to receive it because it was served past office hours. — ELR, GMA News
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 13:29:56 +0000
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