Vitaliano Aguirre II

Vitaliano "Vit" Napeñas Aguirre II (born October 16, 1946) is a Filipino lawyer serving as a commissioner of the National Police Commission from January 11, 2021 to June 30, 2022.

The eldest of nine children, he attended the Mulanay Elementary School and graduated as valedictorian in 1959.

His family then moved to Manila where he received his high school and college education.

He was a full scholar at San Beda College, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1967.

He then pursued legal studies at San Beda College of Law, where he and Rodrigo Duterte would become classmates and fraternity brothers in Lex Talionis Fraternitas.

He graduated from law school as valedictorian and cum laude in 1971, and passed the bar examination the same year.

As a young lawyer, he joined young activists who fought the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.

He went into hiding for five years after the Marcos dictatorship charged him for inciting to sedition until the case against him was dropped.

In later years, he would support the Marcos family in politics due to his ties with Rodrigo Duterte.

He established a law firm in Makati with partners Rodolfo Robles, Sixto Brillantes, Jose Ricafrente, Antonio Nachura and Antonio San Vicente.

He served as the lead counsel of Hubert Webb in the 1995 Vizconde murders case and as deputy counsel of the Feliciano Commission's fact-finding investigation of the 2003 Oakwood mutiny.

He is a managing partner at Aguirre & Aguirre Law Office, and taught law at the Arellano University Law Foundation.

Aguirre supported the 2010 presidential campaign of President Benigno Aquino III.

During the impeachment trial of Renato Corona, he was tapped as one of several private prosecutors tasked to secure the Chief Justice's conviction.

He gained wide public attention in 2012 during the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona when he was cited for contempt after he was caught covering his ears while being lectured by the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago.

Vitaliano Aguirre II was born and raised in Mulanay, Quezon to Alfaro G. Aguirre and Maria Napeñas.

His father was a mayor of the town who also served as Liberal Party chairman for almost 40 years.

In February 2012, during the Impeachment of Renato Corona where he was a counsel, Aguirre was cited for contempt after a disrespectful gesture and argument towards the respected senator-judge Miriam Defensor Santiago, who was the most vocal on the court trial proceedings.

In March 2013, President Aquino appointed Aguirre as vice president for Legal Affairs of the government-owned Clark Development Corporation.

Aguirre was also a lawyer for then Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

He previously served as Secretary of Justice under the Duterte administration from 2016 until his resignation in 2018, and vice president and chief legal counsel of Clark Development Corporation under former President Benigno Aquino III.

He served as the latter's chief legal counsel on the cases seeking to disqualify Duterte during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as on cases linking the President to the Davao death squads.

He likewise represented a policeman who owned a quarry site turned into a firing range where remains of supposed victims of these alleged death squads were believed to have been buried.

In July 2016, following the victory of Duterte for the Philippine presidency, Aguirre was appointed as the new secretary of the Department of Justice.

On July 26, 2016, Mulanay plantation farmers accused Aguirre that he was asking and "threatening" them to pay rent in a land they rightfully own.

The resident farmers who have been living and farming for generations in the 200-hectare Hacienda Tulungan in Brgy.

Sta.

Rosa claimed that the land belongs to them under the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

On November 27, 2016, two commissioners of the Bureau of Immigration, an attached agency to Aguirre's department, were embroiled in an extortion controversy.

Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles were accused of extorting P50 million from gaming tycoon Jack Lam in exchange of release of 1,316 Chinese employees of Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino.

Aguirre denied knowledge of the alleged exchange between the immigration commissioners and the tycoon, even after he personally met Jack Lam.

Aguirre sparked controversy after he pushed for state prosecutors, which he controls, to file cases against incumbent senator Leila de Lima, which led to de Lima's arrest on February 24, 2017.

Afterwards, in a two-page motion, prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ), which Aguirre headed, asked the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (MCRTC) Branch 204 to consolidate and handle the three cases against the senator de Lima.

Judge Juanita Guerrero, presiding judge of Branch 204, was the same judge who ordered de Lima's arrest.

On June 8, 2017, Aguirre downgraded from murder to homicide the charges filed against CIDG members involved in the killing of Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa in 2016, sparking public outrage.

CIDG Region 8 police chief Supt. Marvin Marcos, along with 18 others, were the main suspects of the killings.

During the 2017 Marawi Crisis, Aguirre tagged various opposition senators, including Bam Aquino and Antonio Trillanes, along with others as masterminds of the siege, an accusation that would later be proved as fabrications.

Aguirre claimed that the senators flew to Marawi and met with members of two influential local political clans a few days before the May 23 siege.

Aguirre showed to the media a photo of the supposed meeting.

However, Aguirre was apparently unaware that the photo of the alleged meeting in Marawi was posted on a Facebook fan page created by the President's supporters on May 13, or more than a week before terrorists mounted the attack.