By Angie M. Rosales
The Daily Tribune
The Daily Tribune
Exposes P50M ‘incentive’ each for senators, blasts CoA on selective audit
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada yesterday virtually brought the House down, the two Houses of Congress literally, as he practically turned himself into a whistle-blower of sorts before the eyes of the public by bringing out in the open all purported secret dealings and behind closed-door negotiations of high government officials to juggle taxpayers’ money, the controversial pork barrel funds included.
Besides the dropping of names of key officials in the Executive, Senate and House of Representatives, what proved to be the clincher in his privilege speech that glued everyone to his seat, even those in Malacañang, was the purported previous Palace “payoffs” to senators in the last two years, the most recent of which was the alleged P50 million additional pork barrel to each upper chamber member who had voted to convict impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona in May last year.
The whopping P50 million described by Estrada as an “incentive” was just among the series of alleged payouts, supposedly in the form of additional pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to senators as similar enticements were allegedly offered to lawmakers in deciding on the issues, such as the impeachment of former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, the sin tax bill and the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill.
Estrada asked where the “incentive” funds came from. Then Sen. Joker Arroyo along with incumbent Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., voted to acquit Corona while two others, Estrada included, voted for conviction, when judgment day came, the end of the grueling five-month trial on May 29, 2012.
“I maintain, however, Mr. President that I stand by my decision in my vote to convict the former Chief Justice and assure our people that I was never influenced by this incentive which came after the fact,” Estrada said.
The senator said if his colleagues, some of whom were not spared by him in his scathing speech over alleged other unpublished questioned pork barrel transactions uncovered by the Commission on Audit (CoA), are indeed sincere in combatting corruption, “the public ought to know the entire truth…and ugly facts and information behind the PDAF (system).”
The senator said if his colleagues, some of whom were not spared by him in his scathing speech over alleged other unpublished questioned pork barrel transactions uncovered by the Commission on Audit (CoA), are indeed sincere in combatting corruption, “the public ought to know the entire truth…and ugly facts and information behind the PDAF (system).”
“Our people must know this and I challenge anyone to deny this,” Estrada said before exposing what he had insinuated as the practice of the releasing PDAF funds “as a form of reward or incentive to secure the support of legislators for or against certain pet legislations or for other political purposes.”
Even under the administration of President Aquino, the situation remains the same, Estrada said as in the case supposedly of the aborted Guterriez impeachment trial, claiming that Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio Abad sent a threatening text message to certain congressmen led by then Liberal Party Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya on the possibility of impounding their pork allocations should they vote against the impeachment of the former Ombudsman.
“It was very much publicized and confirmed by a number of lawmakers. As expected, Abad had to deny that he sent those text messages,” he said.
“That’s why it did not come as a surprise when word got around that congressmen and senators were offered their PDAF (releases) to ensure the impeachment and conviction of the former chief justice. I will let the public draw its conclusion on this but what I can contribute to this is that after the conviction of the former chief justice, those who voted to convict were alloted an additional P50 million as provided in a private and confidential letter-memorandum of the then chairman of the Senate finance committee,” Estrada said, referring to Senate President Franklin Drilon who was then at the helm of the said panel, while waving on the floor the said piece of paper.
“Where did these distributed funds came from? I am sure Secretary Abad has the answer and I’m sure as well that it was not a unilateral decision on the part of the Senate president in giving out P50 million to each senator,” Estrada said on the floor.
The senator, when interpellated by colleagues, reiterated his claims that he did not solicit nor sought any additional funds during the height of the Corona impeachment trial.
“I stand by my decision to convict the chief justice based on the evidence presented during the impeachment trial. Nobody influenced me in convicting the former chief justice,” Estrada said even as he admitted to Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile in their floor debates that somebody approached him but did not promise any reward.
When egged by Enrile to make a full disclosure of the said incident, Estrada refused, saying he’d rather keep it to himself since he was not “swayed by the influence of this particular person who called me.”
“But categorically, Senator Estrada, categorically, you can say it was not a bribe?” asked Drilon, the presiding officer during the plenary session.
“It was not a bribe, I never said it was a bribe. It was simply an appeal Mr. President. There were no talks of giving a reward,” Estrada said.
“I want to clarify this because I want to preserve the integrity of the Senate as an impeachment court,” Enrile, who was then the upper chamber chief and concurrent presiding officer during the Corona impeachment trial proceedings, underscored on the floor.
“Yes Mr. president, as I told you I was never swayed by anybody, not even Senator Drilon, not even Senate president Drilon, not even the one close to Malacañang. I was never swayed by my decision,” Estrada reiterated.
There was no mention of any amount on supposed “rewards” on the RH and sin tax bills, except that of the alleged offer of the release of senator’s Saro or special allotment release order, a specific authority issued to one or more identified agencies to incur obligations not exceeding given amount during a specified period for the purposes indicated.
Also part of Estrada’s highly-anticipated “explosive” speech, was the inclusion of at least three congressmen aligned with the administration who were also noted by the CoA in its special audit report that found him, Enrile and Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. engaged in alleged dealings with Janet Lim Napoles and her supposed bogus non-government organizations (NGOs).
The senator questioned the non-disclosure by CoA chair Grace Pulido-Tan on issues concerning House Majority Floor Leader Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales Jr., Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab (3rd District), Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. (5th District) who led the House prosecution panel during the Corona impeachment trial and Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad whose total released PDAF allotments remain unsettled to this day.
“Per CoA report, total releases for PDAF, VILP (various infrastructures including local projects) and other sources amounted to P115.9 billion but of this staggering amount, CoA was able to audit only P41 billion. What happened and where did the rest of the P75 billion go?
“The report said that appropriation for PDAF (soft projects) for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 amount to more than P29 billion and out of this, CoA was able to audit only P8 billion! Where’s the P21 billion? Was this released?” he asked.
Estrada said that the CoA report also said that it was able to establish the total releases for each legislator, “and is this the reason only P2 million was audited on Rep. Abad; P178 million on Tupas; P197 million to Ungab; P351 million to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano; only P5 million to former Sen. (Manuel) Mar Roxas and P3 million to Sen. (Antonio) Trillanes IV?”
Gonzales, he pointed out, was found by CoA in the same report, to have incurred questionable PDAF allocations, even way beyond the amounts being supposedly squandered by the three senators, having received more than half a billion pork barrel funds in the covered audit period or exceeding by more than P250 million the total of P420 million for three years.
Estrada said the CoA report showed that 28 suppliers of Gonzales’ district denied undertaking 167 transactions amounting to P28.4 million, P263.6 million worth of ghost projects and questioned cash advances that reached as much as P275 million.
Estrada also scored two of his collegues, namely the blue ribbon chairman, Sen. TG Guingona and Majority Leader Alan Cayetano, for insisting and saying over and over again, for his and Revilla and Enrile’s name to be mentioned, including asking the whistleblower who were those senators with aliases.
Estrada also blasted the media, the Senate panel for their trying by publicity.
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RELATED STORY:
Jinggoy drops Senate bombshell
Political Tidbits
By Bel Cunanan
PolBits.com
By Bel Cunanan
PolBits.com
Most revolting of all gory details he revealed was allegation of P50 million payola for each of convicting senators during Corona trial. Why? Because CJ’s trial was supposed to be a grand morality play, a matter of tough individual conscience—yun pala, pera-pera lang. Transactional politics at worst.
I can compare the size of the TV and radio audience across the nation that listened earlier this afternoon to the privilege speech of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to the audience that sat in rapt attention across the country on that fateful day in May 2012 when the Senate voted to oust Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Most damaging in Estrada’s nearly 1 1/2 hour speech was the revelation that the administration is so corrupt and prone to bribery (“suhol”) of politicos, and throwing away public funds to pork-hungry members of Congress as though these were going out of style.
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It’s impossible not to juxtapose the image of wanton spending of public funds on members of Congress, as painted by the opposition senator, against news reports in the recent budget hearings about severe budget cuts—e.g., how this administration has cut down on essential public services to the people, such as the budgets of public hospitals (e.g., charging the poor now for urinalysis and blood chem) and state colleges and universities.
Every detail in Estrada’s speech was revolting. But perhaps, to many people, particularly appalling was his revelation about how the administration, through the Senate finance committee, allegedly gave each senator who voted to convict and oust Corona an extra P50 million each.
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The Corona trial was supposed to be a matter of personal and deep-seated, and even agonizing, decision for each senator—a matter of conscience, a modern morality play. But the Estrada revelation about payola makes one feel frightfully sorry for the country because that celebrated trial became a grand money game—pera-pera lang pala.
Estrada waved a supposed “private and confidential letter” from then finance committee chair, now Senate President, Franklin Drilon allegedly stating offer of that kind of money for each conviction vote. Estrada stuffed it right back into his pocket afterwards, but one doesn’t have to be brilliant to realize that he couldn’t afford to lie about this matter.
Either there was a letter from Drilon to each of the convicting senators or there was none, as simple as that—but the former would be the last person to call Jinggoy’s bluff. What amazes no end, however, is how Drilon could have become so confident as to leave evidence of the wanton bribery.
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Estrada went on to reveal how pera-pera lang also played a role in the impeachment of Arroyo Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez (who resigned ahead of certain conviction), in the vote on the sin-tax bill and on the passage of the RH bill.
The allegation of payola recalls the front-page Standard story on the allegation by ACT Rep. Antonio Tinio about a very fat lobby fund for the representatives to vote on the RH bill late last year—which the Palace never denied.
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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not exculpating Jinggoy Estrada from guilt here—he does not succeed in making himself or Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Bong Revilla any less guilty of abusing public funds or disabusing the public mind about their involvement.
What Estrada succeeded in doing today, however, was to drive the last nail on the coffin of the P-Noy administration’s moral claim to daang matuwid. The matter of bribery of the senators damages the administration and will further strengthen the call in the streets for his resignation.
To be sure, as Estrada’s colleagues and Palace minions are saying now, Jinggoy has destroyed the Senate as an institution with his revelations. But the Senate has for some time now been a damaged institution, and all Jinggoy did was put an exclamation point to its self-destruction.
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Another point he succeeded in achieving was the conspiracy of “selective justice” among government agencies that should be acting with more judicial detachment and fairness toward the PDAF issue—namely, COA which used select media as its information agent, the DOJ, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the fund-releasing agency, the DBM.
“Selective justice is injustice,” as he rightly observed.
To begin with, COA’s 450-page special audit report zeroed in only on the Arroyo years 2007-2009 and got stuck there. Despite the promise of Secretary Leila de Lima to release a “second batch” of implicated names ,after the sensationalizing of the case of the three senators there’s not much hope.
Note that this morning’s media carried reports about a conspiracy among Senate President Drilon, the Ombudsman and De Lima to block the appearance of Janet Napoles in the coming Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing. Luckily committee Chair Teofisto Guingona Jr. raised a howl and Drilon was forced to sign the summons order for Napoles.
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In fact, as Jinggoy pointed out, and as Sen. Francis Escudero stressed during the third Blue Ribbon committee hearing earlier, the COA report cited 82 NGOs of questionable repute to which some P6.2 billion in PDAF funds were channeled by some nine senators and 18 representatives. But COA itself began to canalize reports toward only the eight Napoles NGOs and the three senators.
What happened to the 74 other NGOs and the rest of the PDAF gang? To PDAF releases in P-Noy years 2010-2013?
Lamely, De Lima said that DBM refuses to release pertinent documents. Obviously the intention from the beginning was to condemn the three opposition senators to trial by publicity—so that the pork barrel stench is dammed at their level and does not reach presidential allies and the Palace.
But Jinggoy already revealed juicy details in the COA report hitherto undisclosed. There’s the P450 million total in PDAF that Majority Leader Boyet Gonzalez dumped into his district over six years, in addition to cash advances of P276 million and another P263.76 million considered questionable by COA as there were no suppliers for projects. Then too, why were only P178 million in pork of prosecution leader Niel Tupas (of the Corona trial) audited? Why were Senators Miriam Santiago, Kiko Pangilinan, Alan Peter Cayetano and Manny Villar, implicated by the COA audit for “irregularities” to the tune of P1.2 billion, not cited.
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More details from Jinggoy: Since 2004 the PDAF was included in COA audits, but how come its special audit report did not disallow even one peso of entry? Neither did it question any of the 79 resident auditors in various offices and agencies of government on the scam? P115.98 billion of PDAF were released in 2007-2009, but how come only P41 billion were audited?
Why this incomplete COA audit? Was it because COA Chair Grace Pulido Tan was spending more time out of the country than doing her job here? According to Estrada, Tan travelled abroad five times in 2010, nine times in 2011, 10 times in 2012 and nine times in 2013.
Pulido-Tan—a known loyalist and former undersecretary of former GMA Finance Chief Cesar Purisima, who resigned with him and the Hyatt 10 in July 2005 at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal, and whom he installed in COA in the new Aquino administration—is campaigning hard to become a member of the UN Board of Auditors, a plum job.
Given her dismal performance in COA and how it contributed to the mess this country is in, her candidacy should be resisted by civic-spirited Filipinos.
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