MANILA — The Office of the Ombudsman will review its 2021 dismissal of complaints involving multibillion-peso infrastructure projects for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) separately prepares to subpoena three officials over newly obtained documents.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said his office would examine how the resolution clearing then Bases Conversion and Development Authority president and now Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon and several other respondents was reached.
Remulla maintained that revisiting the resolution would not violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy because the complaint was dismissed before it reached the courts.
He said it remains premature to determine whether Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who chaired the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc), would be summoned during the review.
“There is a time for everything. We first need to study how our office came out with the resolution in 2021,” Remulla said.
In December 2021, the Ombudsman dismissed the criminal and administrative complaints against Dizon and the other respondents for insufficient evidence.
Meanwhile, NBI Director Melvin Matibag said the bureau launched a separate investigation after obtaining new information and documents concerning the allocation and use of funds for infrastructure and other projects related to the country’s hosting of the regional sporting event.
Matibag said subpoenas would be issued Monday to Phisgoc chairman Ramon “Tats” Suzara, Chief Financial Officer Dexter Estacio and Corporate Secretary John Lester Buenconsejo.
The three officials have been ordered to appear before NBI investigators on July 24 as part of the inquiry into the multibillion-peso projects implemented for the 2019 Games./PN
