‘No bonus for CJ ouster’

Additional PDAF released months after conviction

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang had never promised to reward senators with P50 million each for the ouster of then chief justice Renato Corona in 2012, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said yesterday.

“Not true. There was no promise (of additional funds) or reward to them. I am sure of that. In fact, we were careful not to make PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) releases before, during or after the trial,” Abad said in a text message, denying an allegation raised by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in a privilege speech last Wednesday.

Estrada said he himself received the P50 million as additional fund for “infrastructure projects.” He said a memo on the offer was issued in August.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson also said a senators’ caucus on the issue was called but he did not avail himself of the offer of additional PDAF allotments.

Abad said it was strange that on questioning by Senate President Franklin Drilon, Estrada denied there was bribery in the Corona trial.

The Senate, convened as an impeachment court, found Corona guilty of failing to declare all his wealth in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Estrada voted for Corona’s conviction in the trial presided over by then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. Enrile also voted for conviction.

The two are now part of the Senate minority led by Enrile and are respondents in plunder and malversation complaints filed with the Office of the Ombudsman by the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with the pork barrel fund scam.

Also charged was Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.

According to the complaint, the three senators pocketed P581 million in kickbacks from bogus foundations linked to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

PDAF is the official name of the congressional pork barrel. It allocates P200 million for each senator and P70 million for each member of the House of Representatives.

“I must emphasize that we in the Aquino administration do not and will not bribe any group or individual – whether these ‘bribes’ are offered officially or otherwise – all for the sake of getting our way, or for the sake of gaining political leverage over parties that may oppose us,” Abad later said in a statement.

He said the President, his officials, as well as his political allies “worked long and hard” to lobby for vital measures and advocacies “and in no way or manner did we resort to extra-legal or dishonest means to ensure the success of our causes.”

He said these included the impeachment of Corona and the passage of two controversial legislations – the responsible parenthood bill and the sin tax measure.

For his part, Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo, spokesman for the House prosecution panel in Corona’s impeachment, said Estrada himself had declared that he voted to convict the former chief justice “based on evidence and not on any incentive.”

He said Corona could not claim that Estrada’s revelation was a vindication for him or that his ouster was against the Constitution.

Abad also denied sending text messages to House members in 2011 warning them that they would not get their PDAF if they did not vote for the impeachment of then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

“I never did that. If you recall that time, there was a representative who was accused of doing that. Certainly, it wasn’t me,” Abad said.

He was referring to Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, who revealed then that he had received from an administration congressman a text message about Abad’s supposed warning.

The House impeached Gutierrez, who resigned before the Senate could begin her trial.

During the Gutierrez impeachment, Tiangco said the release of his PDAF was often delayed until he complained about it in the media.

“But there was no problem with my releases during the Corona impeachment,” he said.

Tiangco was the only congressman who testified for Corona’s defense in the latter’s Senate trial.

As for the P50-million “reward” claimed by Estrada, Tiangco said, “I haven’t heard about it. I go by the documents, and I haven’t seen it.”

Check the records

Like Abad, Secretary Ricky Carandang, a member of the Palace communications group, denied Estrada’s allegation.

“There was no P50 million given to senators for impeachment. As a matter of fact, the DBM withheld PDAF releases so it could not be misconstrued that the funds are precisely for Mr. Corona’s impeachment,” Carandang said.

“You can check the records yourself. Several months after the impeachment, there were PDAF releases both for senators who voted to convict or acquit Mr. Corona. The records will bear that out,” he said.

Carandang said it was also not true that House members who voted against Corona's impeachment were not given pork barrel.

He said the records would speak for themselves and the public may check them out.

Estrada said on Wednesday lawmakers were assured of PDAF releases if they would vote for the RH and sin tax bills, negating praises for Congress for its having finally found the courage to act on two sensitive measures.

The Corona ouster was also hailed as one of the triumphs against corruption.

Abad also rebuffed Estrada for his claim that the administration had asked legislators to refrain from putting the proposed 2014 budget under any real scrutiny, just so the budget would be passed on time.

“We cannot do that. To suggest this is an insult to the country’s lawmakers, as well as to Congress as an autonomous branch of government,” Abad said.

“It is no secret, in fact, that budget deliberations in the Lower and Upper Houses are an exhaustive, meticulous, and time-consuming process, as evidenced by the long hours that the DBM and Congress have consistently devoted to each budget hearing.”

Abad said it was with much amusement that he watched Estrada deliver his privilege speech.

He said it was unfair for Estrada to implicate him and the Aquino administration in supposed irregularities.

“Let me say this for the record: Sen. Estrada’s allegations against me and the administration are completely baseless and untrue, and his statements smack of an irresponsibility that has no place in our pursuit of truth and justice,” Abad said.

“In his speech, he portrayed the administration as a sly and coercive force that imposed undue influence over Congress, so that lawmakers were ‘bribed’ or offered rewards in exchange for their support for President Aquino’s own priority legislation,” Abad said.

No special instructions

On Estrada’s claim of special instructions from Malacañang for lawmakers to railroad budget approval, Abad said the executive’s only directive was to ensure the budget was not reenacted.

“All we have requested of them is to make sure that the budget hearings proceed as scheduled, and that we meet our deadline for the timely passage of the national budget,” Abad said.

In his speech, Estrada also challenged Abad to produce PDAF documents that the DBM was unable to furnish the Commission on Audit (COA).

“I must stress that these releases were made in the previous administration, and that it has proven difficult for us to trace the provenance of some of these fund releases, the channels they passed through in the course of their utilization, or the parties or groups that they ultimately benefited,” Abad said.

He noted that Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson explained that these releases were particularly hard to track down, as they were made directly to the agency’s district engineering and regional offices and not to the DPWH Central Office.

“Nonetheless, we have been working actively to secure the documents that COA needs from us, and we continue to pledge our cooperation in the audit body’s efforts to get to the truth of the matter,” Abad said.

Ambivalence

Some senators, meanwhile, admitted having received largesse from the executive but whether it was an “incentive” for Corona’s ouster was not clear.

Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said that he was not aware of the “private and confidential letter memorandum” that was supposedly issued by Senate President Franklin Drilon when he was still chairman of the committee on finance regarding the allotment of an additional P50 million.

“I don’t know anything about that letter and if the issue is was there any offer for our votes in any of those mentioned issues, then there is none,” Guingona said.

Guingona did confirm though having received an additional allocation of P50 million in 2012.

“At some point, later on. Very, very much later on. We checked our records, it was December,” Guingona said.

Enrile also confirmed that there was a P50-million additional PDAF allotment last year, but it was “done long after (the trial).” Enrile said that he did not receive any such letter from Drilon.

Former senator Panfilo Lacson also confirmed the P50-million additional allotment but clarified that he did not avail of it.

“I had no regular PDAF. I didn’t partake of any extra fund in whatever form and for whatever purpose,” said Lacson, who had never availed of his PDAF entitlement.

Lacson said he recalled an announcement made about additional allotment during a caucus of the senators.

“I need not decline because Drilon and the others knew I would not avail. But I remember declining openly in that caucus,” Lacson said.

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said that he could not recall anything about the memorandum or the P50 million in additional funds.

“It was not given for the vote (to convict Corona) if indeed something was given. Jinggoy himself said that it was not a bribe to convict,” Cayetano said.

“Personally, I never received a single centavo in consideration of my vote,” he said.

He said that he could not recall if there were releases immediately after the impeachment vote.

Sen. Ralph Recto said that he did not get any additional funds.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, for his part, said that he has to check his records to determine if there was such an allotment for his office.

Interviewed by reporters over the phone yesterday, Estrada said that the memo was issued in August last year, three months after the trial of Corona.

Estrada admitted that he availed of the additional funding for “infrastructure projects.”

“So the senators who claim that they don’t remember should check their files and see if they received the letter, if they availed of the projects or not. On my part, I availed of it,” Estrada said in Filipino.

Not a bribe

But contrary to what he insinuated in his privilege speech, Estrada said that the funds were not a bribe to ensure the conviction of Corona.

“That was not a bribe because that came after the fact or after the conviction,” Estrada said. “You may call it as an incentive. Reward or incentive, whatever you want to call it. The timing is suspect.”

For Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she said that Enrile was most likely the mastermind in the distribution of the P50 million.

“Again the mastermind in the P50-million bribe could have been Enrile because he was Senate President, and blatantly pro-impeachment at that time,” Santiago said.

Santiago said that each senator who allegedly received P50 million, including Enrile and Estrada, should return the money to the government.

“Since the crime has been admitted, the money should be returned to the government. We have to apply the concept of restitution, meaning the compensation paid by a criminal to the government as the victim of plunder, usually as part of a criminal sentence,” she said. With Marvin Sy