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THE
Senate, exercising its oversight powers, is setting the
stage for a separate inquiry into the alleged bribery of
local officials and congressmen during their meeting
with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang on
October 11, with members of the League of Governors and
officials of the Antimoney Laundering Council among
those to be invited to take the witness stand.
Sen.
Panfilo Lacson, appearing at the Quijano de Manila forum
at the Cherry Blossoms Hotel in Manila Wednesday,
disclosed that he is collating evidence “which would
show that a bigger corruption was behind this bribery
act that happened in Malacañang.” He was referring to
the P500,000 cash each that at least two governors
confirmed receiving after attending the Palace meeting.
“The
culpability may reach up to the Office of the
President,” Lacson said. “No matter how they cover it up
they will only be digging themselves into a deeper
hole,” he added, citing the statements coming from the
League of Governors who claimed ownership of the money
distributed to Palace guests in Malacañang two weeks
ago.
“Where
did the money come from? If they [league] have an
account in the Bank of Commerce, how long has it been
opened and how big is the total deposit? The bank will
not agree to ante-date an account and if the league has
no account at the Bank of Commerce, they will have a lot
of explaining to do,” he said, hinting that the league
officials who doled out the funds could be held liable
for “complicity in graft and corruption” for involvement
in a cover-up, if the money did not come from them.
In a
separate development, the United Opposition (UNO) said
Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone and the leadership of
the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) may
find themselves in deeper trouble for claiming that the
bags of money came from the funds of the league.
UNO
president and Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay said the
funds of the LPP and other organizations of local
officials are considered public funds.
“The LPP
is funded by contributions from member-provinces, and
the contributions are taken from the budget of the
provincial governments. These are public funds, and
should be subject to auditing and standard disbursement
procedures,” he said.
“This is
a very clumsy attempt to manage the issue. In effect,
Governor Evardone has owned up to possible
administrative and criminal liabilities for what appears
to be unauthorized disbursement of funds,” he added.
But
Binay doubts the veracity of Evardone’s statement,
noting that it took the LPP official 12 days before
making the supposed clarification.
The
Makati mayor found it odd that the LPP treasurer, Rizal
Gov. Casimiro Ynares III, was not aware that
disbursements were made from the league’s “Capability
Building Funds.”
At the
Quijano de Manila symposium, Lacson lamented that a
supposedly prestigious association like the league of
governors, “or at least a group within that bigger
group,” are trying to fool the people in a brazen way.
“They are already fooling us, they even want to make
some money?” he said, after league officials asked
Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio and Bulacan Gov. Joe Mendoza,
who confirmed getting P500,000 each, to give the money
to the league if they do not want it.
“They
want to get the money from the two governors? That’s
really something!” Lacson exclaimed.
He told
journalists at the Quijano de Manila forum that
officials of the Bank of Commerce and the AMLC may be
called to testify once the blue-ribbon committee
convenes hearings into the alleged anomaly.
In a
separate interview, Sen. Alan Cayetano, committee
chairman, said they are ready to conduct a separate
investigation into the alleged Palace payoffs.
“At
least, the bank official concerned should have reported
[the movement of huge amount of money distributed at the
Palace meeting] to the council. It should have been
reported because it involved the movement of funds that
run into millions or hundreds of millions. They should
have a record of that and it should have been reported
to the council. If not, there’s a failure by a bank
official and this bank official will be asked to account
because it was already announced that the Bank of
Commerce was the source of the cash distributed at the
Palace meeting,” Lacson said.
He
hinted that the blue-ribbon committee will likely
subpoena the bank records as it “should be part of the
investigation.”
The
senator added that the AMLC will also be called to
testify and confirm if they have records that the bank
official concerned reported the movement of funds to the
council. “The provision of the law is very clear—that
the threshold amount for reporting is pegged at
P500,000. And we know that it’s now just P500,000 that’s
involved here because two governors have said they got
money and already indicated they are wiling to attend a
Senate inquiry into this.”
At the
same time, Lacson also told guests at the forum that
President Arroyo must have known about the funds
distributed to the governors and the congressmen who
held separate meetings with her at the Palace on October
11. “I think she knows the source of the funds,” he
said. “Only the President can disburse such funds,
especially inside Malacañang. It’s unthinkable for the
President of the Republic not to know what’s happening
inside the palace especially if it involves giving out
P500,000 to governors and congressmen.”
He said
the league officials have a lot of explaining to do. Why
is there no voucher or receipt? Even with that, they
have a criminal liability. They said it’s not private
funds, that these are coming from contributions of
capitols so we’re still talking of people’s money. Why
give out cash without proper disbursement? It is like
swimming in quicksand when you resort to covering up
without proper backstopping. When the proper
investigation is conducted all of this will come out.”
Lacson
said among the first to be called are the members of the
league’s secretariat who will be asked to explain how
they disburse these funds. “Because we have good
information regarding the source of the funds; that is
why I don’t believe it came from the league of
governors. I’m just collating and securing documents,
which would show that a bigger corruption was behind
this bribery that happened in Malacañang.” |
