(UPDATED – 10:06 a.m.) MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday condemned a supposed member of the media who might have allegedly colluded with Sen. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros in exposing his text messages, which purportedly contained the DOJ chief’s plot to file a case against the lawmaker.
Aguirre also announced during the resumption of the Senate probe on the killing of Grade 11 student Kian Loyd delos Santos that he would file an ethics complaint against Hontiveros after he filed charges against her of three violations of Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law before the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office earlier in the day.
The ethics complaint to be filed by Aguirre against Hontiveros pertains with the Sept. 11 privilege speech of the senator, wherein she showed the alleged content of then DOJ chief’s text exchanges with former Negros Oriental representative Jacinto “Jing” Paras about plotting a case against Hontiveros.
“Any text or SMS chat exchanges in our mobile phones, which are part of our private communications, are apparently no longer private. It could be done to me and it could be done to anybody…No one can feel safe, not even you, Mr. Chair,” Aguirre said during his speech before the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs chaired by Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
“I caution everyone, be on the guard, at all times. [All that] any person with an ax to grind against anyone has to do is to claim that a member of the media inadvertently took a picture of text messages in the screen…targeted a person’s mobile phone and precipitately its authorized release to the public,” the DOJ chief said.
“As I’ve said, everybody can be targeted. If unpunished…we will all be contributing to the creation of this monster, which may become too big to slay later,” he added.
Aguirre also attacked the supposed member of the media “who evidently disregarded the privacy of any communication.”
“If you do truly exist, I say, shame on you. Nakakahiya ka kung tunay kang member ng media o kung tunay ka nga,” he said.
For not claiming authorship and responsibility for the act of intrusion, Aguirre told his unidentified object of pique, “you prostituted yourself.”