The complaint filed against Senator Aquilino Martin “Koko” Pimentel III for alleged violation of quarantine rules in March last year has been dismissed by the Department of Justice (DoJ).
“The Office of the Prosecutor General, DoJ, resolved to dismiss the complaint against Senator Koko Pimentel for violation of Section 9(e) of R.A. No. 11332 or the ‘Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of the Public Health Concern’ for lack of probable cause,” said OPG spokesperson Prosecution Atty. Honey Delgado in a statement on Thursday.
Former University of Makati law dean Rico Quicho who filed the complaint before the DoJ on April 6, 2020 expressed dismay over the dismissal of the case.
“Got the news that DoJ let Sen Koko scot-free. Bulag, pipi at bingi ang DoJ. Taumbayan na ang huhusga,” read Quicho’s post on his Facebook account on Thursday.
The case stemmed from the visit of Pimentel who accompanied his then pregnant wife, Kathryna, to the Makati Medical Center (MMC) March 24, 2020.
Pimentel was also reported to have visited the S&R supermarket located at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City on March 16, 2020.
MMC had denounced the lawmaker’s visit to the hospital since he was supposed to be under self-quarantine at that time when he was considered a person suspected of being infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Immediately after his hospital visit, Pimentel confirmed he tested positive for COVID-19.
Assistant State Prosecutor Wendell Bendoval conducted the preliminary investigation of the case.
Citing the 19-page resolution of Bendoval, Delgado said. “Senator Koko Pimentel is not a public health authority (i.e. he is not the DOH [Department of Health], the RITM [Research Institute for Tropical Medicine], 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,” Delgado said.
Assuming Pimentel was mandated to report his medical condition under RA 11332, the spokesperson said “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.”
Also, Delgado said there was no “non-cooperation” in violation of RA 11332 since “Senator Koko Pimentel was deemed to have ‘cooperated’ when he left the hospital premises immediately after receiving the information about his medical condition…”
“The complaint itself is fatally defective,” the spokesperson also pointed out.
The spokesperson explained “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.”
