Trillanes wants prosecutor Sulit probed for 'mishandling' of tax scam case

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has asked the Office of the President to also investigate special prosecutor Wendell Sulit — whom it recently suspended — for her alleged role in the mishandling of a multi-billion tax credit scam case. Trillanes said several witnesses in the P5.2-billion tax credit scam case against Faustino and Gloria Chingkoe claimed that Sulit and her office committed negligence when they allowed the accused to travel abroad despite having plunder charges filed against them in 2009. "I have reviewed their claims and I am convinced that special prosecutor Sulit and her subordinates have a lot of explaining to do," Trillanes said in a statement released Thursday. He said Sulit "sat on and neglected" the cases, with the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) not even moving for the cancellation of bail or issuance of arrest warrants against the accused couple. Trillanes said the OSP could have asked the courts or the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel the passports of the Chingkoe couple to force them to return to the country. He said they could have also initiated their extradition or reported the two as fugitives to the International Police (Interpol). "I am greatly disturbed and gravely concerned by this apparent pattern of action of the OSP of going easy on the accused in multi-million and multi-billion cases. It sends the wrong signal that those who steal in the millions or billions could get away with their crimes and even get to keep the money they stole to boot," he said. "Since the Special Prosecutor and her people are all presidential appointees, I call upon the Office of the President to thoroughly investigate this matter and file the appropriate administrative and/or criminal cases, if warranted," Trillanes added. On Wednesday, Malacañang had already suspended Sulit for 90 days for graft and betrayal of public trust because of the plea bargain agreement she entered into with former military comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, an accused plunderer. Trillanes, meanwhile, also asked the Supreme Court to investigate why the Sandiganbayan "had apparently acquiesced into the irregular handling of the tax credit scam cases to forestall the necessity of initiating a Senate investigation into the matter." Trillanes said that the Sandiganbayan 4th division has suspended the trial of the case against the couple in 2009. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News