MANILA, Philippines – An angry Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, on Tuesday ordered Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to bring the whistle-blowers in the P10-billion “pork barrel” scam in the chamber’s next hearing on Thursday.
“What you have done is unprecedented. Unprecedented. And in my view, you have attempted to undermine and diminish the power of the blue ribbon committee. I’m very, very disappointed,” Guingona told de Lima.
“And I don’t agree with your stand. I’m therefore issuing a subpoena for you, directed to you to have the whistle-blowers appear before the Senate blue ribbon on Thursday, 10 in the morning,” the senator added.
Guingona then suspended the hearing.
Immediately after he opened the proceeding at around 9:30 a.m., Guingona confronted De Lima over her failure to bring principal whistle-blower Benhur Luy and other witnesses in the scam as agreed on.
The senator said he and De Lima met last week where the justice secretary promised that she would bring the whistle-blowers in the committee’s next hearing.
Guingona said the committee was supposed to meet again last Thursday, September 19, but that De Lima requested that it be moved to another date because of hectic schedules and also because the whistle-blowers were tired.
This was the reason, why Guingona said, the committee conducted its hearing this Tuesday.
On Monday, however, Guingona said the committee received a letter from De Lima, saying she could not bring the whistle-blowers, citing the rules of the Office of the Ombudsman, prohibiting “publicity” when the case has been filed in court.
“Madam Secretary, this is unprecedented,” Guingona said. “I did not issue a subpoena because (we have an agreement that you would bring them here) and I relied that representation. I relied on that agreement.”
“You invoked the rules of the Ombudsman on that letter. In my opinion, you can’t invoke the rules of the Ombudsman because you’re not the Ombudsman,” he added.
De Lima admitted that she had made a promise but said she had to re-evaluate her decision after reading the Ombudsman’s rules of procedures.
“I had to take a closer look of the law particularly the Ombudsman law, and the Ombudsman rules of procedures and it was confirmed from my reading of the law that actually whenever a case has been filed with the Ombudsman, the general rule becomes no publicity if it will prejudice the disposition of a case before the office of the Ombudsman,” she said.
But De Lima clarified that she was not invoking the “authority or the powers of the Ombudsman on her own behalf.”
“I have no such power to do so. Yes, we’re clear on that. It’s only the Ombudsman that can invoke such prerogative to whether or not to make public matters falling under the confidentiality rule under the Ombudsman’s rules of procedures…” she further said.
She also pointed out that her letter and appearance in the hearing without the whistle-blowers was “not a categorical rejection or disobedience to the Senate committee.”
All she was asking, De Lima said, was for the committee to provide Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales the opportunity to state her position since charges in connection with the scam have been filed already at her office.
Interviewed by reporters after the hearing, De lima expressed readiness to bring the whistle-blowers in the next hearing of the committee on Thursday.
“If I receive a subpoena then I have no choice because otherwise I might be cited for contempt,” she said.
When asked what if the Senate issued a subpoena and the Ombudsman ordered her not to bring the whistle-blowers, De Lima said: “Then I will have to further study, I will have to further evaluate kasi magiging legal issue na yan [it would be a legal issue].”
After the interview, De Lima approached and apologized to Guingona, who accepted the gesture.
Luy appeared in the hearing last September 12 and narrated how some legislators allegedly received kickbacks from Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind in the scam.
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