By Atty. Victor C. Avecilla — October 9, 2025
AFTER his recent, unsuccessful attempt to get himself appointed Ombudsman, it appears that big time lawyer Michael Aguinaldo has now set his eyes on the powerful post of Secretary of the Department of Justice. That post was recently vacated by the new Ombudsman, former Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla.
The reasons why Remulla was appointed Ombudsman are public knowledge. As Justice Secretary since 2022, Remulla introduced badly needed reforms in the Department of Justice, ranging from reducing backlogs nationwide, to changes in the process of preliminary investigations to make sure that only the truly meritorious criminal cases are prosecuted in the name of the State. Remulla’s no-nonsense style of handling difficult, even very controversial cases such as the surrender of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court, speaks highly of his resolute and uncompromising determination to enforce the laws, come hell or high water.
In turn, Aguinaldo has nothing substantial to show, in terms of past performance, to even come close to Remulla’s accomplishments. Aguinaldo served as Chairman of the Commission on Audit (COA) starting in 2015, and as Chairman of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC). His performance in both posts has been, to put it mildly, lackluster and forgettable. Does anyone know any his accomplishments in the COA and the PCC?
From what has been indicated in the congressional investigations on the current flood control scandals involving the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and certain “favored” contractors, and from what can be gleaned from the news, the COA may have had a hand in allowing in the past the illegal expenditure of public money in ghost infrastructure projects and substandard construction works, which were recently exposed in Congress and in the media. This revelation is very alarming because under the Constitution, the COA is mandated to audit all expenditures of public funds and to ascertain that public money is not lost to corruption and wastage. Based on what has been so far exposed in Congress, and by Vince Dizon, the newly appointed DPWH secretary, the COA may have been gross negligent in this regard.
Considering that the ongoing congressional investigations indicate that the big mess involving ghost or substandard flood control infrastructure projects may have possibly taken place even before 2022, Aguinaldo, being the COA chairman at that time, has a lot of explaining to do. Does Aguinaldo have any role in having allowed in audit the expenditure of public money for ghost and substandard projects during his term as COA chairman? So far, Aguinaldo has been conveniently silent on this matter. In fact, his silence is deafening.
This is heavy baggage, so to speak, on the part of Aguinaldo, enough to render him unfit to become the Secretary of Justice. The nation, particularly during these troubling times, cannot afford a Justice Secretary like Aguinaldo who has not explained himself on his possible role in the allowing in audit the wastage of huge sums of public funds on anomalous infrastructure projects.
In addition, there seems to be nothing of substantial consequence that the PCC had accomplished during Aguinaldo’s watch there. The PCC is mandated by law to level up the playing field in commercial competition in the Philippines, but today, gargantuan monopolies still lord it over many industries in the country. Big businesses are easily able to swallow smaller enterprises, and this leads to monopolies that manipulate the cost of consumer products and services. What does Aguinaldo have to say about this? Again, his silence is deafening.
The foregoing is additional baggage, so to speak, for Aguinaldo, and it also shows that he is unfit to become the next Justice Secretary.
Prior to his stint at high public office, Aguinaldo used to be a partner in the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles law firm, one of the biggest of the big time law offices in the Philippines, with an extensive list of clients. Aguinaldo’s ties to a huge and influential law firm like it will make him very likely prone to many conflict of interest situations. The nation’s next Justice Secretary should not be one with so many possible conflict of interest situations plaguing him and the Department of Justice. That will be bad for the public interest.
Indeed, the other contenders for the post of Secretary of Justice are lawyers themselves, but unlike Aguinaldo, their law firms do not have a very long list of wealthy clients, corporate or otherwise, who may possibly stir up many a conflict of interest situation enough to compromise the just and proper enforcement of penal laws in the country.
Incidentally, Aguinaldo once lawyered for Citra, a company which once managed the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) prior to the latter’s acquisition by the San Miguel Corporation. Back then, when the expressway management filed with the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) an application for a huge increase in toll fees, certain public interest groups led by the late 1971 Constitutional Convention Delegate Ceferino Padua filed their opposition thereto with the TRB.
In the course of that litigation, Aguinaldo once asked the TRB to issue a gag order to stop the press from writing about the pending case. This move was objected to by the oppositors and it was ultimately disallowed by the TRB. Thank God Aguinaldo did not have his way.
An increase in toll fees on the SLEX is a matter of keen public interest which should be ventilated in the media. Aguinaldo, however, attempted to prevent any public discussion. Imagine what would happen to proceedings in the Department of Justice if Aguinaldo is appointed Justice Secretary.
Public interest prompted this essay, and public interest is best served if Aguinaldo is not be appointed Secretary of Justice. ■
- ₱75 Million Heist: Cops Gone Full Bandit
- ₱6.7-Trillion Temptation: The Great Pork Zombie Revival and the “Collegial” Vote-Buying Circus
- ₱1.9 Billion for 382 Units and a Rooftop Pool: Poverty Solved, Next Problem Please
- ₱1.35 Trillion for Education: Bigger Budget, Same Old Thieves’ Banquet
- ₱1 Billion Congressional Seat? Sorry, Sold Out Na Raw — Si Bello Raw Ang Hindi Bumili
- “We Will Take Care of It”: Bersamin’s P52-Billion Love Letter to Corruption
- “Skewed Narrative”? More Like Skewered Taxpayers!
- “My Brother the President Is a Junkie”: A Marcos Family Reunion Special
- “Mapipilitan Akong Gawing Zero”: The Day Senator Rodante Marcoleta Confessed to Perjury on National Television and Thought We’d Clap for the Creativity
- “Bend the Law”? Cute. Marcoleta Just Bent the Constitution into a Pretzel
- “Allocables”: The New Face of Pork, Thicker Than a Politician’s Hide
- “Ako ’To, Ading—Pass the Shabu and the DNA Kit”
KWEBA ni BAROK 
Leave a comment