Bunye, NFA chief hurdle Palace lifestyle check

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye and National Food Authority administrator and incoming agriculture secretary Arthur Yap have been cleared of charges of "unexplained wealth" and alleged irregularity, which the Palace’s lifestyle check committee had investigated without their knowledge.

Bunye and Yap were "victims" of anonymous complaints filed before the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).

An elated Bunye announced this new development during his daily press briefing at the Palace yesterday in response to a question on the willingness of President Arroyo and the members of her Cabinet to be as open as the senators in disclosing how and where they spend their salaries.

Bunye had been trying to impress upon the journalists at the briefing that Cabinet officials like him submit their annual statements of assets and liabilities (SALs), copies of which the public can get from the Office of the Ombudsman or at the Malacañang Records Office.

"We have our SAL. And we have been subjected to lifestyle check, and I would like to let you know that I have been cleared. I’ve got a certificate that I’ve been cleared by the lifestyle check committee," he said.

Bunye learned he was cleared of the charge that he violated "anti-graft laws for allegedly constructing a mansion" along Saranggani street, Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa City. He received a one-page copy of the "clearance" issued to him by Manuel Gaite, the deputy executive secretary for legal affairs, dated July 8.

"I did not know about it until I got this certification," he told The STAR, adding that the complaint was "apparently anonymous."

Acting on this unsigned complaint, the PAGC conducted a lifestyle investigation on Bunye and submitted its findings to Gaite’s office.

"Based on the said report and recommendation, this office finds that there is nothing irregular in the construction of the said mansion, as such is within Bunye’s financial capacity as evidenced by his acquired properties and assets prior to his appointment as press secretary and subsequently as presidential spokesperson in this office," Gaite said in his decision dismissing the complaint against Bunye.

Bunye said he reported a net worth of P29.16 million in his SAL as of Dec. 31, 2003.

Prior to serving three consecutive terms as Muntinlupa mayor and one term as congressman of the same city, Bunye worked as one of the top executives of the Ayala Group of Companies before being recruited by then President Corazon Aquino as officer-in-charge of Muntinlupa City right after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

The graft complaints against Bunye and Yap were apparently filed after reports came out that they will be appointed to other government posts.

In Yap’s case, he received much earlier a certification from the PAGC clearing him of graft charges by unnamed, "disgruntled" NFA employees displaced by administrative reforms he instituted.

Bunye is reported set to be appointed as concurrent press secretary, while Yap will soon replace Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., whose resignation takes effect today.

Bunye and Yap are not the only ones PAGC had investigated without notifying them beforehand about the existence of complaints filed against them by unknown parties.

Former press undersecretary Carmen Suva was investigated for alleged "unexplained wealth" when she supposedly did not mention in her SAL a Toyota Revo van given to her as a birthday gift by one of her children.

Suva came to know about the complaint when the PAGC issued a press release about it. The complaint was filed by an unknown phone caller.