Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Wednesday refused to be goaded into a war of words with former Senator Joker Arroyo who had accused him of being lazy.
Last Tuesday, the former senator said that President Benigno Aquino III gets into trouble because of the “indolence” of his spokespersons.
“Part of the problem in Malacañang is the indolence of their spokespersons,” Arroyo said in a statement. “They play things by ear and pass [them] off as facts.”
“Staff indolence, that’s why the President gets into trouble for missteps that are not his,” Arroyo added.
Although Lacierda has declined to answer the former senator’s criticism, he cannot help but questioned once more the latter’s failure to speak out against graft during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“I have a lot of respect for Senator Arroyo [so] I will not get back at him,” Lacierda said during a televised press conference.
But Lacierda wondered: “Why is it that corruption was rampant during GMA’s (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) time and it seemed we didn’t hear anything from [Senator Arroyo]?”
“I wish he was [as] vigorous as Secretary Leila de Lima,” he added, referring to De Lima’s track record as Justice Secretary.
Lacierda said the senator’s performance against Martial Law was among the reasons he studied law. “But I was very disappointed,” he ended.
The Palace spokesperson narrated his experience as counsel for whistleblower Jun Lozada who faced Arroyo during the senate investigation on the NBN-ZTE (National Broadband Network-ZTE Corp.) deal.
“He (Arroyo) defended (then deputy executive secretary) Manny Gaite,” Lacierda said, amid Lozada testifying that Gaite gave him P500,000 which the whistle-blower eventually handed over to the Senate.
He also questioned Arroyo’s tirade likening them to a “student council” when, as Lacierda put it, “this administration is practicing his slogan (Kung bad ka, lagot ka).”
On the other hand, he said they are taking at face value Senator Panfilo Lacson’s claim that he did not know about the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Lacson, like Arroyo, denied receiving funds from the DAP which were given to some senators months after the Senate impeached then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“With due respect to Sen. Lacson the fact that he does know about DAP as a term does not negate the fact that it existed prior to his knowledge…Maybe he did not know about the term but that is realigned savings,” Lacierda said.
Answering questions on the DAP and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), Lacierda said, “As far as the executive branch is concerned, the President has already abolished the PDAF… We are very confident that we can defend the (constitutionality of) DAP.”
He said they appreciate the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on the legality of PDAF and wish that the “concern should be on who stole the people’s money.”
Lacierda said the cases filed against Janet Lim-Napoles and her alleged bogus non-government organizations (NGOs), as well as investigations on the other NGOs connected to the misuse of the PDAF boosted the administration drive against graft and corruption.
Obviously Lacierda was not aware that Joker Arroyo has disputed criticisms that he was silent about the previous administration’s alleged excesses.
Last Tuesday, Arroyo issued a statement enumerating his achievements in fighting graft and corrupt practices in the government.
In the fertilizer scam, Arroyo pointed out that he was the chairman of the Senate blue ribbon when it investigated the scam along with the committee on agriculture, which led the inquiry.
In fact, he said, he co-authored the 41-page committee report, “strongly condemning the project and recommending prosecution of the offenders from top to bottom.”
On the ZTE investigation, Arroyo said he filed a separate opinion with the opening declaration that the “broadband project, subject of the investigation, was doomed to fall at its inception.”
“As I postulated after the elections and with the election of President Aquino, the ZTE case found its way to the Ombudsman and the prosecution of the offenders,” he said.
Arroyo said Senate records would show that he “found fault in many issues with GMA (Arroyo’s initials.)
He then cited how he appeared and argued before the Supreme Court against Arroyo and won them, how he fought Executive Order 464 or executive privilege as well as Proclamation 101, which curtails freedom of assembly and of the press.
As then chairman of the blue ribbon committee, Arroyo said he reported and condemned the anomalous deals and contracts involving PIATCO (Philippine International Air Terminals Corp), the tax credit scandal, Napocor and Masinloc biddings, among others.
All these records are accessible in the Senate records. You do not need an FOI (freedom of Information) for that,’ Arroyo added.