DOJ won’t probe Duterte’s sons

JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the Department of Justice (DOJ) through its investigative arm National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will no longer probe the possible involvement of two members of President Rodrigo Duterte’s family in the entry of P6.4 billon worth of shabu shipment at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

At a chance interview, Aguirre said the Senate’s probe on the issue might be too much.

“Well siguro sobra-sobra investigation ginagawa ng Senate,” Aguirre said.

Six hearings have already been conducted by the legislative body in relation to the shabu shipment seized last May.

The justice secretary believes that the critics of the President only want to make the issue appear to be a “family affair.”

Aguirre has supported Blue Ribbon Committee Chair Richard Gordon’s stand not to invite Duterte’s son Paolo and his son-in-law Manases Carpio to the hearing

unless there’s evidence and basis to do so.

Customs broker Mark Taguba, one of the personalities in the customs issue, has earlier tagged the younger Duterte and Carpio in the Davao group, a group reportedly involved in corruption schemes in the bureau. In the hearing earlier in the day, Taguba, who brokered the P6.4 billion shabu shipment, said he had given grease money to Duterte and Carpio for earlier shipments.

He said he has given the Davao group P5 million as enrollment fee through one of its members Davao City Councilor Nilo “Small” Abellara.