The ongoing investigation on the alleged irregularities in the preparation of the national budget and links of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to highly suspicious multi-billion infrastructure deals is part of the House of Representatives oversight power granted under the Constitution, former President now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stressed Saturday.
This developed as House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez (Lakas-CMD, Quezon) berated Cabinet officials circling embattled Diokno’s wagon for insisting that the Cabinet official deserved “respect” for being a person “with integrity.”
Suarez said Diokno’s defenders, including Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, are not in a position to impose congressmen’s respect for Diokno.
“I can only say that respect is earned. It’s not a privilege,” stressed Suarez.
He added: “It was Secretary Diokno who drew first blood when he said the current House leadership got huge allocations when he, along with former Speaker (Pantaleon) Alvarez and his allies, received much, much more in unexplained budget insertions.”
Arroyo, who has kept an independent stance on the controversy that pitted Suarez and House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya against Diokno, stressed that the House is a collegial body that decides on the basis of a majority consensus.
“So if what the House votes for, what the House makes decisions on, that’s part of their role as a legislature,” she said in an ambush interview in Taguig City.
“And what do you call this? Oversight,” she stated.
On Wednesday, the House adopted House Resolution No. 2365 urging President Duterte to fire Diokno for allegedly inserting in the proposed 2019 national budget a total of P75 billion in additional infrastructure spending without the knowledge of Duterte and the Departmetn of Public Works and Highways.
Diokno was also tagged as the person behind the awarding of at least 30 infrastructure contracts worth over P2.5 billion to a favored contractor in Catanduanes and Sorsogon.
Suarez claimed that Mayor Edwin Hamor of Casiguran, Sorsogon which has received huge infrastructure budget, is the in-law of Diokno’s daughter and is believed to have links to C.T. Leoncio Construction and Trading that won a minimum of 30 contracts.
Andaya, on the other hand, said, Hamor is the father of Jojo Sicat, husband of Diokno’s daughter. Hamor’s wife, Ester, is the incumbent vice governor of Sorsogon.
Andaya said the House rules committee which he chairs has yet to commence its formal investigation into the questionable multi-billion allocation by DBM for Sorsogon, but this early pieces of evidence linking Diokno to the awarding of the contracts started to surface.
Andaya said that instead of “hiding behind the skirts of his fellow economic managers,” Diokno should explain to the people how he surreptitiously manipulated the budget to favor specific areas and contractors. (Ben R. Rosario)
