Trillanes trumpets legislative triumphs to slam critics, Binay

By: Aries Joseph Hegina - 10 years ago

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Antonio Trillanes IV claims that he is one of the “most productive” senators in terms of legislative work amid the ongoing Senate blue ribbon subcommittee probe on the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2.

Citing statistical data prepared by the Senate Legislative Bills and Indexing Division, Trillanes’ camp said that the senator ranked first based on “total number of bills principally sponsored” and placed third on “total number of bills, resolutions and committee reports filed” from July 22,2013 to November 5, 2014.

This assertion of Trillanes was made amid criticisms that the Senate has been wasting its time and resources in conducting corruption investigations.

“This record disproves the allegations that we in the Senate are failing to perform our law-making mandate due to the Makati Building probe. In fact, there are many hearings which are concurrently being conducted by other committees, aside from our regular Plenary sessions, wherein we deliberate measures to be passed into law,” Trillanes said in a statement.

He added that since he was elected senator in 2007, he has filed 1,032 bills and resolutions, 42 of which were enacted into law.

Meanwhile, the senator announced the proposed legislative measures which he intends to file before the Senate formed from the “findings” of the Makati building probe:

Removal/Abolition of the resident auditor system in the national government and local government units, to be replaced with the adoption of a raffle system for the periodic rotation of assignment/reshuffling of auditors, in order to avoid over familiarization, fraternization and collusion; and to preserve the independence of state auditors;

Inclusion of the actual measurement of the total floor area of a government building project as part of the requirements for formal acceptance and/or technical audit process being conducted by the Commission on Audit (COA);

Adoption of Davis Langdon and Seah (DLS) Construction Cost Handbook and/or other acceptable industry standards by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), COA, and procuring agencies as the basis for agency estimates and as standard reference material for all government infrastructure projects; and

Video recording of all government procurement procedures and/or activities, as espoused by Senate Bill No. 477, entitled “An Act Enhancing the Transparency of the Procurement Process by Mandating the Video Recording of All Procurement Related Conferences, Thereby Amending Republic Act Number 918, Known as Government Procurement Reform Act of 2003, Prescribing Penalties for Violations Thereof, And for Other Related Purposes.”

The vice president’s camp and the opposition party United Nationalist Alliance have assailed the Senate subcommittee probe as part of a reportedly well-funded demolition job to derail the chances of Binay to clinch the presidency in the 2016 presidential elections.

Binay has been repeatedly invited to attend the Senate hearings but refused to show up.