NBI considers ethics complaint vs. Leviste after trafficking raps

MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is considering filing an ethics complaint against Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste before the House of Representatives next week, Director Melvin Matibag said on Friday.

Matibag said this after announcing that the bureau will file on Friday afternoon “qualified human trafficking” charges against the congressman and six others after completing its investigation into the supposed “honey trap” plot against Executive Secretary Ralph Recto.

READ: NBI to file ‘qualified human trafficking’ raps vs Leviste, 6 others

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“Next week we will be considering also filing […] a case to the ethics committee of the House of Representatives against Congressman Leandro Leviste,” Matibag noted in an ambush interview on Friday.

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The NBI director said he does not know Leviste’s exact current location but noted that he is “definitely still out of the country.”

“Last time that we monitored him, he was in France; hindi ko lang alam ngayon kung nasaan na siya,” he said.

(Last time that we monitored him, he was in France; I just don’t know where he is now.)

The Inquirer reached out to Leviste regarding the matter, but he has yet to respond as of this writing.

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Last August 6, Matibag and the Bureau of Immigration confirmed in separate statements that Leviste and his mother, Sen. Loren Legarda, have left the country through separate flights on August 2.

READ: ‘Positive’: Matibag says Leviste, Legarda left the country

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Leviste was implicated by a nabbed talent manager—Alias Ken—as the alleged “financer” in the “honey trap plot” against Recto.

Aside from Leviste, Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto “Jing” Paras, alias Ken, and four lawyers from the Rondain and Mendiola Law Firm who were supposedly tasked to create fabricated statements against Recto were implicated.

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The congressman and other implicated individuals have since denied Alias Ken’s allegations of a supposed plot against the executive secretary./coa