Villanueva told to stop acting ‘sanctimonious’ given link to PDAF scam

Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva (File photo from the Senate Social Media Unit)

MANILA, Philippines — It seems the beef between members of the House of Representatives and the Senate will not go away anytime soon.

Ako Bicol party-list Representative Elizaldy Co, who chairs the House Committee on Appropriations, asked Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva to refrain from acting “sanctimonious.”

Co made the request as Villanueva was supposedly linked with the pork barrel scam staged by convicted mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.

Co talked about how Villanueva asked who House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe was referring to when Dalipe dared senators to reveal their stand on constitutional amendments.

The suggestion was supposed to help voters decide in the 2025 polls.

It also seemed to be in reference to Villanueva’s previous claims that senators would get bigger votes compared to House lawmakers.

“First of all, Senator Joel is a former party-list representative, and it seems our senator is too boastful when we know who he is,” Co said in Filipino in a radio interview.

“We know who Senator Joel Villanueva is. He used to be perpetually disqualified by the decision of the Ombudsman. But it seems he was able to appeal the case. But we know he was linked to Napoles.”

Villanueva was one of the officials charged in connection with the pork barrel scam.

It this scheme, lawmakers would channel their pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to bogus nongovernment organizations created by Napoles.

Under the scheme, Napoles would give kickbacks to lawmakers for placing their PDAF on ghost projects.

Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Elizaldy Co (File photo his office)

In 2016, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered Villanueva to be dismissed from public office because of the scam.

Villanueva — son of televangelist and Cibac party-list Representative Eduardo Villanueva — gave this short message in reply to the issue: “Liars go to hell.”

But Co claimed Villanueva was only lucky that he was a friend of then-President Benigno Aquino III.

Co said Villanueva was a “virtual nobody” before Aquino appointed him to head the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).

“That’s how we know him. He got lucky that he was the best friend of PNoy [Aquino], and we do not know how he won,” Co said.

Several House leaders hope the tension between Senate and House over the issue would simmer down.

This sentiment comes as a Senate subcommittee started discussions on the proposal to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution.