WITH SUCH wide latitude for discretion, secretaries who do not rate well in the integrity meter had been so tempted by money and favors that some litigants and other concerned parties offer. But most presidents so far have seemed to fail to appreciate the paramount role the justice department plays in promoting the rule of law, especially on behalf of poor litigants, and thus appear to have given not much thought on whom to appoint as its chief. And although those who have occupied the post obviously possessed law degrees at least—with most even having considerable legal experience—many were politicians first and last, among them those appointed since 1986: Sedfrey Ordoñez, Teofisto Guingona, Franklin Drilon, Silvestre Bello III and Serafin Cuevas. All of them were distracted by things that did not necessarily have anything to do with seeing that justice is served. Perhaps the only nonpolitical DOJ head in the last two decades was Perez's immediate predecessor, Artemio Tuquero, who was plucked by then President Joseph Estrada from the Court of Appeals to become justice secretary.

A DOJ longtimer singles out Bello as being the most similar to Perez. Bello, he says, had long lines outside his office and had his staff working through the night entertaining guests. "There were many referrals," says the DOJ insider. "That's the same with Perez. But during Bebot's (Bello's nickname) time, the bureaucracy was working, there were well-defined policies. Now, they're all waiting for Nani. Career officials are idle, disenfranchised. The others are very scared of Pamela."

'Pamela' is Pamela Lazatin-Escobar, DOJ chief of staff and member of the executive committee composed mainly of Perez's trusted appointees, whom reporters have dubbed collectively as the "Ateneo Mafia" because they are all the justice secretary's former students at the prestigious Ateneo College of Law. Last November, reports of alleged case fixing involving the "Mafia" members broke out, prompting Perez to announce that he would henceforth personally take charge of running the DOJ. He also stripped Escobar of most of her discretionary powers, and said he would investigate the allegations of anomalies. But that was just about as far as it got, say insiders.

Escobar meanwhile says that the authority and decision-making at the DOJ is actually "compartmentalized," not centralized. "They thought I was so powerful,'' she says. "(But) everything is cleared with the Secretary. That's why I was very cautious…I even double-check when I clear things with him….I give him all the options and it's still him who decides."

Agnes Devanadera, a former student of Perez's who rose to become one of his partners in a law firm before she quit to run as mayor in Sampaloc, Quezon in the late 1980s, describes Perez as being very "impulsive," his opinions " sometimes clouded by some people there." She also observes that Perez's problems in administering the DOJ are replicated in many other departments precisely because the Arroyo administration had to move into position in a rush. Says Devanadera, who is also with Lakas-NUCD, Perez's present party: "Biglaan kasi agad. Nakakaawa rin yung mga taong nalalagay. (It was all very sudden. You'd also sympathize with the people who were appointed.)"

Perez, however, is no legal lightweight. Lawyers who knew him when he was still in active practice say that if he puts his mind to it, Perez can easily run circles around many of their colleagues who are themselves now holding public office. After graduating from the Ateneo de Manila Law School in 1961, Perez started teaching law at the Ateneo, the University of the East, and the University of Batangas, which is owned by his family and that of former Batangas Governor Vicente Mayo. In 1982, Perez, now 62, also obtained an MBA from the Ateneo. These while being a member of a law firm that later became known as Balgos & Perez Law Offices, and in which he became partner in 1970. Before he was drawn to politics, he had already built a career as a corporate litigator.

His former students also remember him as a brilliant teacher. Corporate lawyer Perry Pe, who took classes under him at the Ateneo in the 1980s, says Perez the teacher was "loved and feared and hated all the same." Pe recalls that Perez would always come prepared for class and loved quizzing and interrogating students on the spot.

It is precisely because of his quite impressive legal background that some of his friends and former students are now wondering why Perez and his department are being hounded by undue delays and unexplained reversals of rulings on a number of cases. The gravest of these include the seemingly interminable investigation by the justice department of the BW Resources insider-trading case (despite a Perez promise last February that the work would be done in 45 days and a new case would be filed) and the dismissal of the complaint against Westmont Securities boss Edgardo Espiritu and his son, also regarding insider trading.

Many are surprised as well why a former law professor and court veteran like Perez has made what look like legal slips. One came just two days after Perez was appointed justice secretary: he issued an opinion that removed the legal obstacles to a much-criticized $470-million hydropower plant contact awarded to the Argentine firm IMPSA (Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima). He later drew flak for acting in what seemed to be undue haste in removing the hindrances to the project and thereby allowing IMPSA to take over what is considered to be the most strategic power facility in Luzon.

Less than a month after Perez issued the IMPSA opinion, the justice department admitted three close associates of ousted President Estrada as state witnesses in the plunder and graft cases to be filed against the former movie actor: Carlos 'Chuckie' Arellano, ex-president and chief executive officer of the Social Security System (SSS); Federico Pascual, former general manager of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS); and businessman Willy Ng Ocier, vice chair and director of Belle Corporation.

The government is believed to have lost billions of pesos because of questionable investments made by the SSS and GSIS, then under Arellano and Pascual, in firms including Belle Corp. Yet, when they finally testified this January in the plunder trial of Estrada, Arellano, Pascual, and Ocier notably failed to help the prosecution nail Estrada even as they saved their own skins. Until December, he also kept secret from private prosecutors the existence of three other Arellano affidavits and two other Pascual affidavits on Equitable PCIBank, Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Co., and Waterfront Phils.

Legal experts note as well that the three were all processed in a manner that was the reverse of the procedures as prescribed by the Rules of Court. The normal process is a case or cases had already been filed in court, and an accused—who is not the most guilty of the offense—comes forward to submit an offer of testimony to be admitted as a prosecution witness. The three Estrada associates were admitted as witnesses a full two months before the Ombudsman filed the plunder and graft charges against Estrada.

Interestingly, Arellano, Pascual, and Ocier were all represented at Estrada's plunder trial by the same lawyer, who was recommended to them by Perez. Arellano has also known Perez for at least two decades: the two are poker buddies.

The justice secretary may also have more than an official interest in the case. Perez has publicly admitted that he had served in the early 1990s as chair of Belle Corp., a fact that had been known to the prosecution panel even during Estrada's impeachment trial at the Senate. In his latest statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) filed March 8, 2001, though, Perez disclosed that he has been a stockholder of Belle Corp. from 1978 to "the present"—or up to the time that he decided to admit Ocier as a state witness.

Perez's SAL did not specify the peso value of his stockholdings in Belle but merely stated that his shares in 14 companies, including Belle, amount to P19.2 million, or 80 percent of his other assets worth P23.7 million as of this year, apart from P16.7 million in land and real estate that he also owns.

Belle, however, may not be the only corporation tying Perez to Ocier. In 2000, the Perez family-owned Malvarosa Ventures, an orchid and poultry concern, received a P2.2-million infusion from Alfred Cu and his wife Rosa Yang H.C. Cu. A daughter-in-law of the Cus happens to be the sister of Ocier's wife. Too, like Ocier, the Cus belong to the top 20 stockholders of Belle.

Responding to a three-part series published by the PCIJ in January, Perez failed to address the issue of possible conflict of interest and the curious processing of the three witnesses. Instead, he merely said "judging from the slant of the article, they (the PCIJ) interviewed people who were not really in the know." He also denied still having stocks in Belle Corp., and added that the government had strong evidence in the Belle case, including the testimonies of Arellano, Pascual, and Ocier.

As for the IMPSA issue, which was the subject of another PCIJ story last year, Perez said in part in a lengthy letter he sent to newspaper editors: "(There) was no haste in the rendering of the legal opinion. It is the duty of the Justice Department and all government offices for that matter to act with dispatch on matters presented before it for resolution. The project was impressed to substantially benefit the power condition and development of Luzon and there was no reason to delay the opinion there being no pending issue or complaint from any of the agencies involved." This letter was actually prepared by IMPSA's press relations office and adopted almost en toto by Perez, DOJ insiders say.