Flattered by trust

Why is there a conflict of interest when he is not called upon to decide?

President Rodrigo Duterte’s expression of confidence so elated his spokesman Salvador Panelo that he repeatedly expressed his thanks to him in a regular press briefing yesterday at Malacañang.

Duterte in a separate surprise press briefing last Wednesday defended Panelo on his “referral” of convicted rapist-killer Antonio Sanchez’s case to the Bureau of Pardons and Parole (BPP).

“I thank him for that. I really thank him,” Panelo told reporters.

“I said, Mr. President, thank you for your expression of confidence, and he said, ‘That was but the truth.’”

The President vouched for Panelo’s character during the briefing and said what he did was correct.

On Wednesday, Mr. Duterte cleared Panelo of alleged conflict of interest for referring the request of Sanchez’s family for executive clemency and meeting them twice afterwards at his office in Malacañang.

Mr. Duterte said Panelo did nothing wrong when he wrote the BPP the referral letter.

No infraction was committed since it was not his spokesman’s fault for referring the request of Sanchez’s daughter, Marie Antonelvie, to the appropriate agency, Mr. Duterte stressed.

“What Panelo did is not his fault. You cannot question that. And he happens to be there because I appointed him,” Mr. Duterte explained.

“When it landed in his office, he referred the letter to the proper entity. That’s the board (Board of Pardons and Parole). Panelo did not commit any infraction. He happened to be a lawyer at that time,” he added.

The Chief Presidential Legal Counsel could only have acted wrongly if he decided to personally attend to the Sanchez family’s request, according to the President.

“Why is there a conflict of interest when he is not called upon to decide? But if you say they asked his help because he used to be their lawyer, what’s wrong with that?” Duterte said.

“I have full faith in Panelo. He’s not that type of person. You’re wrong,” he added.

“The referral of the letter of Ms. Marie Antonelvie J. Sanchez, who happened to be the daughter of Mr. Sanchez, to the BPP is just one of the thousands of referrals the OCPLC (Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel) has made to various government instrumentalities,” Panelo said.

“The letter, just like thousands of letters before it, was simply referred to the appropriate office,” he added.

Panelo reiterated that it is standard operating procedure of the OCPLC to respond to all letters received by it and refer, and not recommend or endorse, them to the appropriate agency.

“Accordingly, the OCPLC only refers matters to appropriate agencies which have the resources to verify the relevant facts contained in the letters and the mandate to act on them,” he added.

Panelo also pointed out that his office considers inaction on a request received as “not only as nonfeasance, but also a corrupt practice.”

“Hence, so we respond to all, regardless of who we received the letter from. Singling out one connotes partiality in public service, a practice frowned upon by the President and ultimately, punishable by the law,” he added.

“We are merely fulfilling the commitment of the President to lend an ear to all those who require assistance. And this is what the OCPLC performed when it referred the letter of the daughter of Mr. Sanchez to the BPP. Failing otherwise would mean that we have resorted to discrimination and inaction, which may then subject us from punitive sanction,” he added.

Panelo said the referral of the letter-request of Sanchez’s daughter to the BPP took away his office’s concern on the request.

“It meant that I and the OCPLC did not want to have anything to do with the case of Mr. Sanchez or particularly the request of his daughter for a recommendation on the application for a pardon,” he added.

Panelo also insisted that meeting the Sanchez family in his office last 7 February was “above board” because it showed he was not hiding anything.

“As Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, I could have directly gone to the President and recommended that Mr. Sanchez be granted executive clemency. I could have even met with the family of Mr. Sanchez somewhere outside the office, so the public will be unknowledgeable. These would have been condemnatory,” Panelo explained.

“My entertaining them in my office and referring their concern to the appropriate body denote that everything is above board and there was nothing clandestine,” he added.

Panelo said “a simple referral is totally different from a recommendation or an endorsement.”

“The former does not connote undue interference or intervention while the latter does,” he added.

Apart from the family of Sanchez, a member of the Ampatuan clan of Maguindanao sought assistance from Panelo — apparently regarding the Ampatuan massacre.

Panelo, however, said a wife of an Ampatuan, who is wanted and currently at large, was told by no less than President Duterte to just wait for the judgment of the court in one event in Davao City.

He did not name the Ampatuan nor the wife.