MANILA, Philippines — Senator Teofisto Guingona III admitted on Thursday of availing himself of additional P50 million allocation last December but was quick to deny that it was in exchanged for his guilty vote on former Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Guingona is chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee investigating the P10-billion pork barrel fund scam.
“I don’t know anything about that letter and if the issue is, ‘Was there any offer for our votes?’ in any of those na binanggit na issues, then there is none,” he said at a press conference, reacting to Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada’s revelation that senators who voted to convict Corona were given P50-million each.
The amount, Estrada said, was provided for in a “private” and “confidential letter memorandum of then Senate finance committee chairman and now Senate President Franklin Drilon issued in August last year or three months after Corona was convicted in May.
Estrada himself admitted receiving the fund.
But Guingona said he was not aware of the letter Estrada was referring to.
“If the issue is to connect it to the voting, then there is none,” he said.
But when asked if there was an allocation after the impeachment, Guingona said: “At some point, later on. Very very much later on.”
Asked again how much was the additional allocation, he said: “P50 (million).”
“We checked our records, it was December,” Guingona said when asked when did his office receive the fund.
Estrada repeatedly said that the additional allocation was not a bribe but an “incentive” as this was given after Corona’s conviction.