PRESIDENT Benigno S.  Aquino III belied yesterday any link between the relief of former National Bureau of Investigation director Magtanggol Gatdula to the participation of former Supreme Court associate justice and lead defense counsel Serafin Cuevas in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“There’s no connection between the two. Gatdula’s case will be driven by the evidence. We have finished the investigation by the DoJ. It goes now to a formal proceeding called the preliminary investigation,” Aquino told Palace reporters..

Aquino reiterated that he had already lost his confidence in Gatdula, who was being dragged in the alleged million-peso extortion of an undocumented Japanese national in the Philippines by NBI agents last year.

A fact-finding panel from the Department of Justice has recommended charges against Gatdula and other NBI personnel.

Aquino also earlier slammed reports of his sending a Palace “emissary” to sway  Cuevas into quitting the impeachment case against  Corona.

“I didn’t send anybody to talk to Justice Cuevas... Sa totoo lang, parang not worthy of any comment ‘yung isyung ‘yan,” Aquino said.

Cuevas was a former associate justice of the Supreme Court during the Marcos regime and secretary of the Department of Justice under the Estrada administration.

Reports earlier claimed that Cuevas confirmed that a Palace emissary urged him to back out as  defense panel in exchange for the dropping of charges against Gatdula

Cuevas and Gatdula are both members of the Iglesia ni Cristo, which supported President Aquino’s presidential bid in the May 2010 elections.

Reports earlier quoted an INC insider as saying the INC  gave Cuevas a dressing down, forcing him to retract his story.

The Manila Regional Trial Court granted ex-National Bureau of Investigation director Magtanggol Gatdula a 20-day extension of the suspension of any criminal probe by the Justice department into the alleged kidnapping and illegal detention of Japanese immigrant Noriyo Ohara to which he is being linked.                               

In a 7-page order issued late Tuesday afternoon, Judge Felixberto Olalia Jr. granted Gatdula’s petition for an extension of a previous 3-day temporary restraining order which lapsed on Monday.

“Court hereby grants the prayer for the issuance of a TRO effective for a period of 20 days, subject however, to the filing of a cash bond in the amount of P100,000 conditioned that if later, petition by virtue of a final judgment may be denied, bail will be forfeited in
favor of the government,” Olalia said.               With Jerry Tan