House Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Wednesday, Nov. 3 said he respects the Supreme Court decision that junked his petition questioning government’s failure to accord him due process as it investigated allegations of misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allotted to his congressional district.
However, Rodriguez stood pat on his legal contention that he had been denied due process as guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution when the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) probed the controversy.
“Although it has been my legal position that I was denied due process as required by our Constitution when the NBI investigated me on the alleged PDAF anomaly without giving me the opportunity to be heard and submit my evidence before it, and furthermore, that the NBI itself has found my signatures in the documents to be all forged, I fully respect the SC decision,” said Rodriguez, in reaction to the HIgh Court ruling.
“In a Joint Resolution dated 23 December 2020, the Ombudsman dismissed the cases against me arising from the alleged PDAF anomaly amounting to P3.5M,” said Rodriguez.
He added: “At present, I have no pending case in the Ombudsman.”
In a resolution made public on Oct. 29, the SC junked the petition filed by Rodriguez accusing the NBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for acting beyond their jurisdiction and grave abuse of discretion “amounting to lack ofor excess of jurisdiction in conducting a formal” investigation against him in connection with the PDAF scam that also linked a number of Congress members.
He stressed that the NBI and DOJ denied him due process and violated the equal protection of the law guaranteed in the Constitution when they conducted an investigation and recommended his indictment without giving him the opportunity to be heard.
The High Court rejected the veteran solon’s contention, saying that they found no reason to uphold his claim of grave abuse of discretion committed by the DOJ and NBI, then headed by now Senator Leila de Lima and Director Virgilio L. Mendez, respectively.