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By Angelo S. Samonte and William
B. Depasupil, Reporters
PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo was irked
by the slow paper work in the preparation of cases against
government officials allegedly involved in rice hoarding when she
visited the Department of Justice on Thursday.
The President’s mood turned
sour when she found out that employees of the National Food
Authority (NFA) allegedly in collusion with rice traders would be
facing only administrative charges.
She took to task the members of
the anti-hoarding task force on why the NFA employees were not
charged with the “proper” cases.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez
said his office just received on Thursday the endorsement of the
Department of Agriculture on the matter.
President Arroyo, however, was
exasperated after learning that the endorsement was not a criminal
complaint and began firing a barrage of questions to Prosecutor
Roberto Lao who held the related documents.
”I thought you worked on the
filing of criminal cases. Where can you work on it? Do you have a
working area where you can work on it?” she said. “That’s why
we created a task force to stop finger-pointing.”
President Arroyo was pacified as
the endorsement of the Justice department was turned over by Lao to
National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) officials to prepare for the
possible filing of criminal charges.
Arroyo said she went to the
Justice department “to make certain things go fast.”
Hoarders charge
In Thursday’s preliminary
investigation, the 13 suspected rice hoarders, accompanied by their
legal counsels, submitted their counter-affidavits before Chief
State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno in the presence of the President.
The 13 suspected rice hoarders
were identified as Eleonor Rodriquez, Meynard Guevarra, Francisco
Dio, Arnel Lagunoy, Marzan Maguo, Geonell Vin Centeno, Delia Barreda,
Sofia Guzman, Prestifero Manalo, Lydia Supremido, Anthony Choi
Angeles, Romeo Mariano Jr. and Remedios Almazan.
If convicted, the suspects could
be meted out 6 to 15 years in prison.
The anti-hoarding task force has
so far charged 33 persons over the last two months, including the 13
who submitted their counter-affidavits. The other 20 suspects are
scheduled to appear on May 14 and 21.
The President also made a
surprise visit at the NBI and the Justice department last Wednesday
to get an update on the charges filed against the suspected rice
hoarders.
Gonzalez was quick to explain
that the extra attention given by the President to suspected rice
hoarders was not meant to pressure the Justice department into
immediately completing their preliminary investigation.
Gonzalez said his department will
come out next week with the resolution citing the specific charges
to be filed against the 13 suspects.
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