Pimentel: Palace is using Perez as 'sacrificial lamb'

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr said Wednesday Malacañang used former justice secretary Hernando Perez as its "sacrificial lamb" to erase the corruption stigma hounding President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration. In a statement, Pimentel said Malacañang needed to prove to the international community that it does not condone the illegal acts of supposed "big-time grafters." "It seems the administration will make a sacrificial lamb out of former Secretary Perez to show before the nation and the world that they are running after corruption. They want to create the impression that they are not tolerating corruption," he said. He noted that the Office of the Ombudsman dragged its foot for six years in investigating allegations that Perez purportedly got $2 million in grease money from businessman Mark Jimenez in exchange for the approval of the power contract with the Argentinian firm IMPSA (Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima) to rehabilitate the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydropower plant. Pressed by the Swiss government for action on its findings of money-laundering against Perez, the Ombudsman on Monday finally recommended the filing of charges of graft, extortion and falsification of public documents against Perez before the Sandiganbayan. Pimentel said that while the move was a "pleasant surprise," he lamented the failure of the Ombudsman to look beyond the liabilities of the former justice secretary. He said Ombudsman investigators should have also "investigated deeper the allegation that Perez conspired with other administration personalities in the extortion/bribery case and that the amount involved was much bigger than $2 million." "There was a lot of talk that not only Nani was involved in the case," he said, citing the claims of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that National Power Corporation (Napocor) 'boys' and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo also allegedly received $1 million and $4 million, respectively, from Jimenez. At the same time, Pimentel urged Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to finally make a ruling on the graft complaints against former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante in connection with the alleged illegal diversion of P2.5 billion in fertilizer funds into the campaign kitty of President Arroyo during the May 2004 polls. "I hope that Ombudsman Gutierrez will really demonstrate her independence and fidelity to her constitutional duty by acting on the other corruption complaints against other big fish, including the P2.5 billion fertilizer fund scam involving former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante," he said. The complaints against Bolante are still in the preliminary investigation stage because Ombudsman investigators claim they have yet to get documentary evidence that could help in the probe. -GMANews.TV