18 'bagmen' face flood of lawsuits

For retelling their tale of having delivered billions of pesos in kickbacks from flood control projects to more than a dozen officials — including President Marcos — 18 men claiming to be former soldiers are now facing an avalanche of legal cases.

- By DAPHNE GALVEZ and BELLA CARIASO, Neil Jayson Servallos, Emmanuel Tupas

The first to file cases against the 18 were Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro and the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), a Roman Catholic missionary congregation, which took legal action on behalf of one of its members, Fr. Flaviano Antonio Villanueva.

Dino de Leon, Team Pinas convenor and a public interest lawyer, said he and his associates are planning to file a complaint of usurpation of authority against Senators Pia Cayetano and Rodante Marcoleta before the Office of the Ombudsman and the Senate ethics committee for leading a “sham” Blue Ribbon committee hearing last Thursday, where the 18 resource persons narrated their allegations, mostly through their lawyer.

In filing a case against the 18, Luistro said their allegations were apparently meant to destroy the credibility of members of the prosecution team of the House of Representatives in the coming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

She said her filing of the complaint before the Quezon City Prosecutor ’s Office was intended to protect the integrity of the House prosecution panel.

She pointed out that four of the 11 prosecutors have been named as alleged recipients of luggages of cash, while the others were Duterte critics and part of the House investigations on the Vice President and on former president Rodrigo Duterte.

“The commonality among all the people in the affidavit is we are standing for transparency and accountability and we are actively participating in all investigations against the former president and Vice President,” Luistro said over Bilyonaryo News Channel.

The former soldiers first tagged Luistro as recipient of cash deliveries at a press conference last February. They reiterated their accusations at last Thursday’s gathering that ousted Senate president Alan Peter Cayetano had intended to be a hearing by the Blue Ribbon committee. His sister Pia chaired the committee, with Marcoleta as vice chairman.