MANILA — Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday filed a criminal complaint against Senator Risa Hontiveros in connection to the leakage of a photo showing his personal text messages with a certain “Cong. Jing” who was later identified as former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto “Jing” Paras.
Aguirre filed a criminal complaint for violation of Republic Act No. 4200 or the Anti-Wire Tapping Act against Hontiveros, ‘John Doe’ and ‘Peter Does’ before the Pasay City Prosecutors’ Office.
Aguirre decided to file the complaint at the said office instead of the Office of the Ombudsman, stressing that the civil courts and the National Prosecution Service (NPS) have jurisdiction over the cases because the offenses were committed when Sen. Hontiveros was not in the performance of her official duties.
On the matter of the NPS being under the DOJ which might affect the credibility of the investigation, Aguirre explained: “I could not do anything because that what the law says. It is the law that determines jurisdiction. What I could say is that the DOJ will treat these cases fairly and with justice, so Sen. Riza has nothing to fear.”
After filing the complaint, Aguirre immediately went to Senate to file an ethics case against Hontiveros before the Senate Ethics Committee.
During a Senate hearing, Aguirre delivered a statement accusing Hontiveros and a photographer, whom the senator refused to name, for not only targeting him deliberately, but also conspiring against him.
“From the available pieces of evidence presented by Senator Risa Hontiveros during her September 11, 2017 Privilege Speech, including her presentation showing me holding my cellular phone and the alleged message therein, it is apparent that the member of the media who allegedly took the said pictures inadvertently did so intentionally , maliciously, and unlawfully,” Aguirre said.
Earlier, Aguirre said Section 1 of RA 4200 law provides that it is “unlawful for any person, not being authorized by all the parties to any private communication or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable, or by using any other device or arrangement, to secretly overhear, intercept, or record such communication or spoken word by using a device commonly known as a dictaphone or dictagraph or detectaphone or walkie-talkie or tape recorder, or however otherwise described”.
Aguirre explained “the right to privacy of communication is a constitutionally guaranteed right under Article III of the 1987 Constitution.”
Under the Constitution, he cited that “the privacy of communication and correspondence shall be inviolable except upon lawful order of the court, or when public safety or order requires otherwise, as prescribed by law.”
Aguirre condemned the photo, which according to him, invades his privacy.
“Text messages are private communications. Any unauthorized intrusion into such exchanges is illegal and betrays the Constitution. I condemn to the highest degree this shameless violation of a citizen’s right to the privacy of communications,” Aguirre noted.
“We should be scared. If they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody even to the Senators themselves. No secrets. No privacy. No sanctity. No respect. No peace of mind. Any text or SMS exchanges in our mobile phones, which are part of our private communications, apparently are no longer private and safe!” the Justice Secretary added. (PNA)
Watch the video report here:
