People’s organizations can file the criminal complaint based on the Janet Lim- Napoles affidavit if DOJ won’t budge
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Under Section 19, Rule 132 (Authentication and Proof of Documents), an affidavit is a public document which can be used for any legal purpose.
If the DOJ won’t budge, or if the DOJ Secretary is awaiting clearance from their principal, Butch Abad, ehe, este, er, from the President, who has publicly pooh-poohed the Janet Lim Napoles affidavit and the Napolist repeatedly, over and over (di ka ba madaan sa parinig), and if DOJ Sec. Leila de Lima cannot resolve her dilemma —- any citizen can file a criminal complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman against all those who feasted on their pork barrel, with prayer for a freeze order, a preventive suspension on some of the respondents pending p.i. to prevent the destruction of evidence, a subpoena for bank records and pertinent documents.
Innovative? — “What about witnesses? how will we authenticate the document? How are we going to present evidence?” — More than a decade ago, a group of lawyers together with people’s organizations filed a criminal complaint for plunder against a sitting President — a first in history. The respondent there became an accused. Was convicted. (but pardoned. but jailed before that. but now city mayor… planning a comeback … Ok, those who will file the criminal complaint can work it out)
This was before Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, we had bulky Nokia cellphones and dial-up modems that made whirring sounds and a busy signal for hours — with no historical, legal, political precedent, no template to pattern after or allow us to know what could happen next …
For sheer magnitude, hauling the respondents here could surpass that.
