Andaya’s role in Saros’ release ‘ministerial’
Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr.: ‘Ministerial’ role. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
NAGA CITY, Philippines—Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., head of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on Wednesday broke his silence on his alleged involvement in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
In a phone interview, Andaya’s lawyer, Noe Botor, said the congressman’s involvement in the issuance of special allotment release orders (Saros) was “ministerial,” as this was the job of the budget secretary.
The Inquirer reported on Tuesday that Andaya, who allegedly received P225 million from businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, said to be the brains behind the pork barrel scam, signed 33 of the 43 Saros released by the DBM to Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile to finance phantom projects proposed by her dummy nongovernment organizations (NGOs) from 2007 to 2009.
The 33 Saros involved pork barrel funds amounting to P988 million.
It’s his job
Botor said the Saros mentioned by the Inquirer went through the process and it was natural for Andaya to issue them.
“If the funds were released to the NGOs by the senators it was not Andaya’s responsibility anymore,” Botor said.
He said the Inquirer seemed to give malice to Andaya’s signing the Saros for the three senators, who have been indicted for plunder and graft in the Sandiganbayan.
Revilla and Estrada have been arrested without bail and are now detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City. Enrile is awaiting arrest.
Requests from Congress
“(Regarding) the (Priority Development Assistance Fund), which was in the (General Appropriations Act), the request to issue (the Saros) was not from the Office of the President but from the Senate President and Speaker of the House,” Botor said.
He said the Procurement Act authored by Andaya prohibited the Saros from going through NGOs, “unless expressly provided for.”
Botor said the Inquirer had been magnifying the role of Andaya in the pork barrel scam.
“I don’t know what’s behind this. It’s all based on allegations supposedly extracted from the hard disk of Benhur Luy,” he said, referring to the principal whistle-blower in the pork barrel scam.
Botor said he suspected that the Aquino administration wanted to project a “cleansing” in the government and they wanted to include former President Arroyo, adding that administration officials could not implicate her without implicating Andaya.
Malampaya Fund
Botor said another report in the Inquirer pertained to an alleged blank check supposedly issued to Andaya by then President Arroyo from the Malampaya Fund, the government’s share in royalties from the operation of the Malampaya gas line off the island-province of Palawan.
“If you read the text you will [see] that it was actually an executive order authorizing the use of the Malampaya Fund, not a blank check,” he said.
Botor said it was shown in the Inquirer article that the source of the information on the 70-percent kickback that allegedly went to Andaya was Luy’s files, which he said could not be authenticated.
He said that in the Senate hearings on the pork barrel scam Andaya’s name was never mentioned by Napoles, Luy or witness Ruby Tuason.
“And now they are always trying to connect (Andaya), even though from the very beginning we have denied that he knew these people (involved in the scam),”Botor said.
Show evidence
He challenged Andaya’s accusers to produce any photograph showing Andaya with Napoles, like those published photographs showing Napoles with Senators Revilla, Estrada, Franklin Drilon and President Aquino himself.
“If you go through the dailies, there is none that really links Andaya to the pork barrel scam except the Inquirer. This is the third or fourth issue on Saro and it started with the Malampaya Fund,” Botor said.
In the Malampaya Fund issue, he explained, the fund release was based on an executive order from Arroyo.
“He (Andaya), as the DBM secretary, had to follow, pursuant to law. He had to release it if there was a legal basis. If he would not comply, he would have a problem,” Botor said.
He said the Inquirer magnified the issue using the alleged statement of Luy that three months before Tropical Storm “Ondoy” struck, Napoles instructed her staff to prepare, as they had a P90-million project from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Glaring error
“It’s very glaring that the National Bureau of Investigation failed to see this: That three months before the typhoon, Luy and Napoles had already projected the coming of the storm,” Botor said.
He said nobody else could issue Saros except the budget secretary, a post now held by Florencio Abad.
“If the funds from the government were stolen, it’s the implementing agencies that should be held accountable,” Botor said.
If the DBM did not release the Saros for the projects covered by the budget, the line agencies could not get their allocations for those projects.
Evidence weak
Botor said the evidence against Andaya was “very weak,” as Andaya’s name did not appear in any of the voluminous documents in the pork barrel scam.
“The participation of Andaya was the issuance of Saros, which is a primary duty of the budget secretary,” he said.
Botor said the report of the Commission on Audit on the Malampaya Fund showed no wrongdoing by the DBM and did not mention Andaya.
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