Noy to House: Stop probe of my KKKs

‘CONGRESS NOT A VENUE FOR CHARACTER ASSASSINATION’

Fearing a congressional investigation of the presidential KKKs, President Aquino yesterday again meddled in the affairs of the House of Representatives as he gave his marching orders to congressmen to stop any and all congressional investigations of his Kaibigan, Kaklase and Kabarilan.

This presidential marching order to his allies in the House, who are in the majority, was announced by his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, in reaction to the members of the minority bloc in the House of Representatives that yesterday filed a resolution seeking an inquiry in aid of legislation into the failure or desistance from imposing discipline, suspension or dismissal of errant Cabinet members, more common;y referred to as Aquino’s infamous KKKs.

Led by minority leader, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the opposition camp filed House Resolution (HB) 1419 asking the House committee on good government and public accountability to look into the irregularities involving Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Ricardo Puno, Land Transportation Office (LTO) Chief Virginia

Torres, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) former director Ernesto Diokno.

In the resolution, Lagman twitted the Aquino administration for its refusal to remove from office some of the erring officials despite recommendations from other investigating agencies.

“In a democratic Republican State, the rule of law is sacrosanct and no man is above the law. Public officials and employees must maintain at all times integrity, competence and industry in order to remain in public office,” the resolution said.

“There are not a few public officials in the Aquino Administration who fall under the dubious classification of KKK who have run afoul of the law and/or have committed palpable and culpable malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance,” the resolution stated.

But Malacañang quickly called on every lawmaker from the House to refrain from participating in any discussion that the spokesman claimed would make the halls of Congress as a “venue for character assassination.

“We believe that Congress should not be used as a venue for character assassination,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a text message relayed to reporters when sought for Malacañang’s statement on this particular move of the opposition.

But if the rules of the House are followed by the congressmen, even if they are in the majority, a resolution for an inquiry cannot simply be ignored.

The new position taken by Aquino is a 180 degree turn.

Earlier, Lacierda said Malacañang would not stop anyone from the administration from appearing before any congressional inquiry that the House of Representatives may call in the event the House Minority makes good of its plan to probe Aquino’s close allies. But now with the resolution filed, it appears that Aquino, through his spokesman, wants the probed stopped at all cost, which move would have the effect of the attendance of the named officials necessary.

A congressional source said: “In Noynoy (Aquino)’s order to stop the probe of his cronies and shooting buddies, he is actually doing what is worse than the Executive Order that gagged the administration officials from attending congressional probes, when called by Congress.”

Minority lawmakers counted 36 who signed the resolution, including the former president.

“When did we stop anyone (from appearing before public hearings) since the start of the administration? Did we ever invoke some sort of EO (Executive Order) 464? We never did,” Lacierda was previously quoted as saying when first confronted with this particular scenario but now, Malacañang has expressed concerns about possible character assassination.

Lacierda also previously stated that the administration is not bothered at all in the event the House minority outran them on filing the necessary charges against the current government officials than having it the other way around.

“We will file our cases when there’s evidence to do so, when evidence warrants, not based on innuendoes, not based on half-truths, not based on propaganda… We are continuing to gather evidence and when they are complete we will file the necessary legal actions against them,” Lacierda told reporters last week.

The House Minority said that despite the adverse findings and recommendations of independent and impartial investigating fact-finding bodies against some of these officials have remained in office because they have been “cleared” at the instance of Aquino, who exonerated them motu propio and adverse recommendations have been disregarded by him and no criminal or administrative charges have been filed against them.

In the case of Torres, the known shooting buddy of Aquino, will be reinstated despite the recommendation of the Department of Justice (DoJ) to file appropriate charges against her and eventually be dismissed from the office due to her involvement in the failed Stradcom takeover.

“The President ignored the recommendation,” the solons stated in their resolution.

The resolution also cited resigned DoTC Secretary Jose de Jesus’ memorandum to Aquino dated May 23, 2011 wherein he highlighted the benefits and advantages of the DoTC-LTO contract with information technology (IT) provider Stradcom Corp. and recommended that the said contract be honored because its abrogation and reversion to manual operation will result to the regression of LTO services and prejudice to the transacting public;

Another memorandum of De Jesus to Aquino was bared in a report, where the DoTC chief asked Aquino to discipline Torres for gross insubordination, as she refuses to obey legitimate orders from her superiors, as well as her gross neglect of duty. This memorandum too, dated April 6, was also ignored by Aquino.

There are reports that the President’s rejection of the aforesaid recommendations triggered the resignation of De Jesus even as the President confirmed the return of LTO Chief Torres after a short leave of absence, saying that she has already been sanctioned with her 60 day leave.

In the case of Puno, the solons slammed Aquino for admitting he was not inclined to discipline and charge Puno, despite the recommendation of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), who made a thorough investigation and submit pertinent findings on the Quirino grandstand hostage, to have administrative proceedings for gross negligence.

The opposition lawmakers added that Aquino motu propio cleared with Secretary Purisima of tax irregularities despite clear incriminatory evidence and even rammed through his confirmation in the Commission on Appointments;

Reports said that Purisima admittedly failed to file his Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the years 2007 and 2008. And while Purisima reported a net worth increase of P10.6 million from 2008 to 2009, his joint net income with his wife, Cora, as reflected in their ITR for 2009, was only P3.6 million or a difference of P6.9 million in net worth.

On the other hand, the resignation of Diokno due to scandals rocking the Bureau of Corrections during his watch does not exempt him from both criminal and administrative liabilities and does not qualify him for another government position which Aquino intimated he would be offering Diokno.

Malacañang also yesterday appeared at a loss explaining the LTO mess with its information technology services provider, Stradcom Corp., even as the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Commission on Audit (CoA) reportedly upheld the decision of Torres to defer payment of fees around P1-billion to the IT firm.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning (PCDSP) Secretary Ricky Carandang said the statement of the OSG is just one of the issues that the Executive branch has to clarify on the LTO-Stradcom mess.

“Hopefully, as we review the preliminary findings, we will come up with a decision that addresses all of the issues adequately, in a way that will help really improve the services of the LTO,” said Carandang during a press briefing.

Carandang said Malacañang until now refuses to take a position despite the opinion rendered by OSG that was reportedly echoed by CoA pending the results of their investigation into all the allegations leveled against Torres and her dispute with Stradcom.

The PCDSP chief, nonetheless, vowed to handle the entire situation with utmost regard to public interest. “In anything we do with regard to this there will be due process and there will be fairness,” Carandang said.

“Of course, fairness is in the eye of the beholder but we are going to make decisions, we are going to do the process based on what we feel is going to be for the good of the public and that I can assure you the decisions that we make will be ultimately with the public interest in mind,” he said further. –Aytch S. de la Cruz and Charlie V. Manalo, Daily Tribune