Madrigal to charge Ermita, other execs before Ombudsman

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:48:00 02/14/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- Senator Ana Consuelo Madrigal will file before the Ombudsman on Friday charges of obstruction of justice against ranking government officials for the alleged kidnapping of Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., key witness in the Senate inquiry into the national broadband network (NBN) deal.Madrigal said Thursday that the respondents will include Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Environment Secretary Jose Atienza, and former economic planning secretary Romulo Neri.

The senator said her complaint would also include Malacañang officials Manuel Gaite, Marcelino Agana IV, and Remedios Poblador, police Director General Avelino Razon Jr., police officers Paul Mascariñas and Romeo Hilomen, former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor, Rodolfo Valeroso, airport officials Angel Atutubo and Octaviano Lina, and lawyer Antonio Bautista.

President “Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should have been impleaded in this suit as the 'mastermind' if not for her immunity from suit under the Constitution,” Madrigal said in a statement.“However, after the end of her [Arroyo] immunity on or before June 30, 2010, a case shall be filed against her for her participation in this case,” she added.

“The Filipino people know fully well that the lackeys of Malacañang were lying to protect their president,” Madrigal claimed. “They now demand accountability. Their acts, individually or taken together, clearly show their determination to prevent witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada from testifying in the Senate hearing on the ZTE-national broadband network deal.”

Madrigal said she would, through her lawyers at the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), exhaust all legal means to ensure the prosecution of the officials for violating Presidential 1829, “Penalizing Obstruction of Apprehension and Prosecution of Criminal Offenders,” and for Disturbance of the Proceeding of the Senate of the Philippines, under Article 144 of the Revised Penal Code.

Madrigal also demanded that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez inhibit herself from hearing the complaint “for being a known lackey of Mrs. Arroyo and her cohorts.”