Aquino’s men deny P50-M ‘incentive’ to oust Corona

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang officials denied Thursday Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada’s claim that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) handed out monetary incentives to lawmakers who voted to convict former chief justice Renato Corona.

Budget secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, in an interview with Radyo Inquirer 990 AM, deemed “illogical” Estrada’s revelation on the supposed additional P50 million allotment for the senators who voted for Corona’s conviction in May 2012 on charges he failed to declare his assets.

“First of all, that is absolutely, completely not true. As far as I’m concerned, we did not bribe the lawmakers,” Abad said.

“Illogical” because Abad said, the conclusions on the alleged distribution of the ‘incentive’ were not consistent with the public records released by DBM and the special audit report of the Commission on Audit (COA).

“In fact, we were very careful with the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). We did not authorize any PDAF releases before, during and after the impeachment trial,” he said.

The additional amount, Estrada divulged Wednesday in a privelege speech in Senate, was contained in a private and confidential letter memorandum of Drilon, who was chair of the Senate finance committee during Corona’s impeachment trial.

“We have nothing to do with that [private and confidential] letter. In the interest of truth, he could have substantiated his (Estrada) claims  if he opened and read the letter instead of keeping it private,” Abad said.

Aside from Drilon and Abad, Communications secretary Ricky Carandang denied Estrada’s allegation in a separate interview with dzIQ.

Carandang denied former senator  Panfilo Lacson’s statement Wednesday confirming that senator-judges got P50 million for voting to oust Corona.

Lacson said it was Drilon who announced about the “incentive” or “reward” during the caucus in May.

“I do not know exactly what senator Lacson was referring to. Similar to what Abad has said, during Corona’s impeachment, we temporarily stopped the release of PDAF because we did not want the people to think that PDAF releases might influence the votes of the senators [on convicting Corona],” he told Radyo Inquirer 990 AM.

Carandang added: “Public records by the DBM and COA can attest to this.”

“I do not mean to fight with the senators. All I’m saying is that there are many things coming out now. Some of them may be true. Some of them may not be true,” he added.

Urging journalists to be responsible when it comes to reporting on the issues of PDAF, the former television anchor said that media should verify public records first.

The communications secretary pointed out that they were not “singling out” senators from the opposition like Estrada.

“All of the misuse of PDAF by the lawmakers close to the administration were reported relentlessly by COA. We are not singling out anyone, ” he said.

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