AdChoiceTV News — The DOJ-Office of the Prosecutor General dismissed the complaint against Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III for violating Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of the Public Health Concern” for lack of probable cause.
The complaint was filed last April by former Dean Rico Quicho against Pimentel.
3 grounds for dismissal: (1) Senator Pimentel is not a public health authority (i.e. he is not the DOH, the RITM, the Epidemiology Bureau), therefore, not obliged to report under R.A. No. 11332.
The mandatory reporting under R.A. No. 11332 was meant for public health authorities only;
2) Assuming that as a private individual he was mandated to report his medical condition under R.A. No. 11332, there was nothing to report then when he went to S&R BGC on 16 March 2020 or at MMC hospital on 24 March 2020.
for Senator Koko Pimentel only knew or learned about his condition of being positive for COVID-19 on the same day – 24 March 2020, while he was already at the premises of the hospital.
There is no “non-cooperation” under Section 9(e) of R.A. No. 11332 as Senator Koko Pimentel was deemed to have “cooperated” when he left the hospital premises immediately after receiving the information about his medical condition, and lastly;
(3) The complaint itself is fatally defective. Complainant Atty. Quicho was not the proper party to file the instant complaint, and the pieces of evidence he presented were all hearsay as they were based only on news reports.
News reports, being hearsay evidence, cannot be relied upon as proof of the allegations in the complaint, or as proof of the truth, because they were merely learned, read or heard from others.
Office of the Prosecutor General spokesperson Atty. Honey Delgado says they mailed copies of the resolution to the parties last Jan. 11, 2021.
Atty. Delgado says that in making the resolution, they took into consideration of a similar complaint filed before the NBI that turned over its findings to the DOJ-National Prosecution Service (NPS).
Delgado: Yes, in fact NBI submitted to the DOJ a final report recommending that the case be closed and terminated. — via Irvin Chua / AdChoiceTV News
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