Jawo’s PNB loan sparks Senate fireworks

Fireworks erupted in the Senate yesterday with new administration convert Sen. Robert Jaworski charging that opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara was behind reports linking his defection from the opposition to a loan amounting to more than P400 million from the Phi-lippine National Bank (PNB).

"I moved to the administration so the Senate can move on. It has no relation at all to the loan," Jaworski said, belying published reports that he defected to the administration to get a reprieve from the bank for the overdue loan.

The PNB, invoking bank secrecy laws, would not clear matters up. In a statement, the bank said it was "not in a position to comment on news items attributed to the transfer of Sen. Robert Jaworski to the administration bloc due to the latter’s obligations to PNB."

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) denied reports that Jaworski had also contracted loans with the government pension fund.

"It’s not true," said GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia. "We have never transacted any loan with the senator, personally or through any company."

Jaworski, for his part, said he had been transparent about the PNB loan which he and his business partners contracted in 1996 and 1997, before he was elected to the Senate, to build two cargo ships.

"We had that loan because we were a corporation and we wanted to enter into a business. The money became part of the money that went into a vessel that was built and became the property of the group," he told Senate reporters.

He added that when he and his business partners parted ways in 1999, they divided the assets and liabilities of the firm. He said that he took care of his own responsibilities although he professed lack of knowledge on how his former partners were doing since 1999.

Jaworski said in a statement he had been "faithfully facing his responsibilities with the banks despite the fact that the global economic downturn has affected his business, along with other businesses."

‘Stone-rock’ evidence

"I have stone-rock evidence that it was Senator Angara," Jaworski insisted, a day after claiming that he still held Angara and other opposition leaders in great esteem.

He, however, refused to reveal the nature of his evidence against Angara.

"You have to ask Senator Angara why, and he will tell you," Jaworski said.

"I regret that (Senator Angara) has stooped down to the gutter to get back at me. I am sad that he has peddled lies to achieve his personal political end. By doing so, he has lied to the Filipino people. He has degraded the honor of the Senate," Jaworski said.

Angara, however, immediately denied any role in the report against Jaworski, claiming that the report could be the handiwork of administration psychological war experts out to stir more infighting in the Senate.

Angara was visibly irritated at the accusation that he was behind the publication of the report. Talks of accommodations on the outstanding PNB loan were already rife even before Jaworski joined the opposition last Sunday.

"Nagkasala na si Jawo nang iwanan niya kami. Ngayon, nagkasala na naman siya (Jawo committed a sin when he left us. Now, he is committing another sin)," Angara said.

Angara said that had he known that Jaworski was having problems with the PNB in 1999, he would have reviewed the issues involved. Angara was chairman of the PNB during that time.

New allies to the defense

Senate President Franklin Drilon, meanwhile, attributed the adverse report against Jaworski to "dirty politics."

"This is coming from the opposition. Why is it that this issue was not raised when Senator Jaworski was still with the opposition?" Drilon asked.

He noted that Jaworski has been a senator for four years already and the PNB loan was never raised as an issue.

"The conclusion is, this is dirty politics. But the conscience of Senator Jaworski is clear. The loan is fully secured so there is no need for accommodations. I was there every step of the way and the loan was never mentioned," Drilon stressed.

"It is utterly false that I moved to the administration bloc in the Senate for financial reasons. I believe that these unfounded and baseless allegations and insinuations printed in some newspapers come from a single source," Jaworski said.

"I have said it before but let me repeat that, first, I joined the administration bloc in the Senate to break a paralyzing deadlock. With the count standing at 12 senators for each bloc, the work of legislation had stopped in the chamber. Nothing has moved, and nothing will move, until the impasse was overcome," he added.

"I took it upon myself to break this impasse by casting my lot with the majority bloc and enable the Senate to resume its lawmaking functions and pass bills that will address the most pressing problems in the country, neither politics nor financial considerations motivated my decision," he said. – With Ted Torres