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President Rodrigo Duterte's chief legal counsel called as "consuelo de bobo" the indictment of former President Benigno Aquino III over the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program.

In a statement on Friday, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said since DAP involved P36 billion of the people's money with the Supreme Court declaring that the disbursement was in violation of the Constitution, "the crime charge should have been plunder or at the very least a case of graft and corruption."

"While in the narrow sense the indictment of former President Benigno Aquino III is a welcome development or a push on PRRD's (President Rodrigo Duterte) relentless campaign against graft and corruption, it must be noted however that charge is but a consuelo de bobo indictment," he said.

He noted the "glaring discrepancy" of the alleged act committed as against the complaint filed.

Panelo likened the current charge against Aquino to the case that the Ombudsman also filed against the former leader in relation to the Mamasapano incident.

He said the Aquino's indictment over DAP was "a repeat of the anomalous previous charge against him arising out of the Mamasapano incident where instead of being charged with Reckless Imprudence Resulting To Multiple Homecide, only a Usurpation of Authority was filed."

He urged authorities to correct the omission.

"There must be a rectification of this omission and the process of reversing such indictments is in progress," he said.

Some 44 police commandos were killed by some members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other lawless elements in a botched anti-terrorism operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in January 2015.

"While sometime the wheels of justice grinds exceedingly slow, it does grind, and in the end justice will catch up on the perpetrators of the crime and reap their deserved punishment. Crime does not pay no matter your status in life," Panelo said. Celerina Monte/DMS