MANILA, Philippines — The formal application for the inclusion of missing sabungeros (cockfighting aficionados) case whistleblower Julie “Dondon” Patidongan into the Witness Protection Program (WPP) is still being processed, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday.
DOJ Assistant Secretary Eliseo Cruz said this during the House of Representatives’ committee on human rights hearing on Wednesday, after Mamamayang Liberal (ML) party-list Rep. Leila de Lima asked whether there has been a formal application for WPP coverage for Patidongan.
Benefits of inclusion in the WPP include “security protection and escort services, immunity from criminal prosecution, and not to be subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for any transaction, matter or thing concerning his compelled testimony or books, documents or writings produced,” among others.
“I believe the formal application for the coverage of WPP on our whistleblower is still in the process because, based on Republic Act No. 6981, which is the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act, the witness can only apply under the Witness Protection Program once the case has been evaluated by our prosecutor,” Cruz explained.
“And we are still waiting for the official document about the conduct of the preliminary investigation, but according to our police counterpart, the witness is very much secured,” he added.
It was alias “Totoy,” or the whistleblower Julie “Dondon” Patidongan, who claimed that the 34 missing sabungeros were...
Russian propaganda is spreading false statements that the account of the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, was allegedly created with...