Senatorial candidate and former local government secretary Benjamin “Benhur” C. Abalos Jr. asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the criminal and administrative complaints filed against him by former president Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Duterte, also administrator of of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), charged Abalos with malicious mischief and violation of domicile under Articles 327 and 128, respectively, of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).
The former secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) was also charged administratively with grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority.
The charges arose from the operation conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Davao City to serve the arrest warrants issued against KOJC founder Apollo Quibuloy and other accused in the non-bailable qualified human trafficking and child abuse cases.
Quiboloy and the other accused have been arrested and are now under detention.
In his counter-affidavit filed before the DOJ on Friday, Nov. 22, Abalos said the "charges are baseless."
"The filing of the Complaint-Affidavit is clearly politically motivated and brought in bad faith, intended to harass me and besmirch my good name and impugn my character,” he said.
He pointed out: “No prima facie case exists to indict me for violation of Article 327 and Article 128 of the Revised Penal Code. Therefore, a dismissal of the present complaint against me is warranted."
He also told the DOJ that he "never participated in planning the operations up to its execution."
"Moreover, I never took charge in the actual implementation of these warrants of arrest for the simple reason that it was not part of my functions,” he added.
“I also did not participate in the issuance of the warrants as these were solely determined by the above-mentioned criminal courts" and "was not personally present during the actual implementation of the warrants of arrest,” he stressed.
At the same time, Abalos disagreed with the argument in the complaint that he should also be held criminally liable due to command responsibility.
"The fact that alone that I was the DILG Secretary during the time when the members of the police allegedly committed the supposed violations does not make me automatically responsible therefor under the doctrine of command responsibility,” he pointed out.
He reminded that “the operation to serve the warrants of arrest was a lawful implementation of judicial orders” and it was “the criminal courts which determined probable cause to issue these warrants of arrest.”
The DOJ panel of prosecutors, he said, has no jurisdiction to handle the complaint of grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority...."
“Section 21 of Republic Act No. 6770 provides that the Office of the Ombudsman shall have disciplinary authority over members of the Cabinet, and not this Honorable Office,” he explained.