By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — The Department of Justice (DOJ) lacks 500 public prosecutors nationwide, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday revealed.
De Lima said the National Prosecution Service lacks personnel in the provinces; only Metro Manila has enough prosecutors. “Right now, there are no (case) takers in some (areas),” she told reporters here.
The Justice secretary said there is a dearth of prosecutors in most areas in the country, especially Mindanao. In Sulu, for instance, the prosecutors were from Zamboanga, she said.
De Lima said she has submitted a list of candidates for government prosecutors for approval of President Benigno Aquino III.
She could not tell, however, if the list included candidates that could be assigned to this city.
‘NO POLITICS’
Meanwhile, de Lima said the filing of graft and plunder charges against opposition legislators over the alleged misuse of their respective Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAFs) is not tainted with politics.
“There is no selective prosecution targeting possible rivals in 2016,” de Lima said. She said: “Politics is not a consideration. We are not color-blind.”
She said, “I am personally reviewing the cases being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation.” Without sufficient evidence, the cases cannot be filed, she stressed.
De Lima said the DOJ will submit to the President “a matrix of all those involved.”
“There will be three categories: first, those with enough evidence, which means those whose names are in the first, second and third batches of cases filed before the Ombudsman; second, those who were found to have misused their PDAFs but with insufficient evidence (against them); and third, those whose names were mentioned but cannot be confirmed by the whistle-blowers,” she said.
De Lima said the President ordered to file charges against anyone involved, ally or not, if there is enough evidence./PN
