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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Tuesday, October 3, 2017
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MANILA – Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II filed a criminal complaint against Sen. Risa Hontiveros yesterday at the Pasay Prosecutor’s Office.
He accused the senator of violating the Anti-Wiretapping Law for making public his text messages with former Negros Oriental representative Jacinto “Jing” Paras captured in a photograph.
Hontiveros said the case was meant to divert public attention from the “real issue” – that Aguirre was mulling charges against her for taking custody of witnesses to the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos.
“The cases filed against me today … are a desperate attempt to deflect public attention away from his text conversation inadvertently captured by someone’s camera lens, which caught him red-handed plotting against me during a Senate hearing inside the Senate,” she said.
In September, Paras also filed kidnapping, obstruction of justice and wiretapping complaints against the senator before the Office of the Ombudsman.
“This is the real issue here. Secretary Aguirre was caught conspiring and instigating private individuals to file cases against a sitting senator inside the Senate,” she said.
“Hindi rin naman tinatanggi ni Secretary Aguirre ang text conversation. Huwag na tayong magpaligoy-ligoy pa,” she added.
There is “conflict of interest” in the case filed yesterday because the Pasay Prosecutor’s Office is under the jurisdiction of the Justice department, Hontiveros said. “Bibigyan daw niya ako ng ‘magandang laban.’ Magandang laban o lutong Macau?”
Aguirre assured Hontiveros that the National Prosecution Service of the Justice department will treat the cases “fairly” and “with justice” so Hontiveros “has nothing to fear.”
“After further study, I came to the conclusion that it is the civil courts and the National Prosecution Service that have jurisdiction over the cases because the offenses were committed when Senator Risa was not in the performance of her official duties,” he said.
Aguirre insisted that the real issue was Hontiveros’ alleged violation of the Anti-Wiretapping Law when she peered on his private text message.
“Ang issue sa inyo: Did you violate my constitutional right to private communication?” he asked. “I don’t want to talk about it since it will violate my right to privacy. Iyan ay hindi niyo maaaring gamitin. … It is as if it is non-existent.”
Aguirre also challenged Hontiveros to identify the person who took the picture of his text messages if only to prove that the image was captured in good faith.
But the case “confirms the conspiracy hatched by Secretary Aguirre to ‘expedite’ the filing of cases against me,” said Hontiveros.
“There was no intent to tap or intercept his messages. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy,” she insisted. “The law is clear. What is prohibited is willfully and knowingly committing any acts constituting wiretapping.” (With Adrian Stewart Co/PN)
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