Philippines Justice Minister Resigns

by Ma Nguyen Tong

17-1-2003

The Philippines Justice Minister, Hernando Perez, resigned in early January 2003, after repeating that the corruption charges levied against him were false. Mr Perez had been on leave since November 2000 when the accusations were made by another legislator, Congressman Mark Jimenez.

Mr Jimenez, who had since been extradited to the United States to face fraud charges, said that he had paid two million dollars to Mr. Perez to influence the extradition proceedings.

In his letter of resignation, Mr Perez said he was resigning to stop the situation undermining the government of the Philippines. A key ally of President Gloria Arroyo, he was the fourth cabinet minister to have left the government in nearly the same number of weeks.