Probe vs probe: Nancy to hold inquiry on CCT
MANILA, Philippines–The Senate will train its sights on controversies surrounding the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program when session resumes in two weeks.
Sen. Nancy Binay said her committee on social justice, welfare and rural development would initiate a hearing on the administration’s centerpiece antipoverty program in response to resolutions filed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
“I prefer to focus on things that answer the needs of our countrymen,” Binay told reporters yesterday.
No date has been scheduled for the inquiry, however.
The Senate blue ribbon subcommittee also is scheduled to resume its long-running investigation on corruption in Makati City during the term of Vice President Jejomar Binay, the senator’s father.
Santiago has filed two resolutions on the CCT program, which provides a monthly cash assistance to the poorest of the poor families in the country.
One resolution seeks an inquiry into findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) that state-owned Philippine Postal Corp. (Philpost) had accumulated P5 billion in unliquidated cash advances from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Philpost stations, which distribute the CCT cash assistance, attribute their failure to account for the funds to glitches in the computerized system of Land Bank of the Philippines.
In September, the DSWD said Philpost’s unliquidated CCT funds amounted to P1.6 billion, and the liquidation process was ongoing.
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said all CCT funds had been accounted for.
Housing deals probe
Also on Tuesday, Senator Binay dismissed allegations by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV of anomalous transactions in government housing agencies headed by her father. Trillanes said these housing deals would be tackled in the hearings of the subcommittee, on top of alleged corruption in Makati.
According to Senator Binay, the controversy over the alleged Globe Asiatique scam had prompted the Vice President, the country’s housing czar, to be meticulous about deals related to housing.
Globe Asiatique has allegedly used bogus borrowers to obtain loans from the Home Development Mutual Fund, or the Pag-Ibig fund, for its housing projects. Globe Asiatique’s Delfin Lee is currently detained for syndicated estafa.
Senator Binay said her father had “really been careful because the previous administration faced a lot of allegations.”
“The first thing he did was to make sure all contracts entered into by the different housing agencies were closely scrutinized, especially coming from the Globe Asiatique scandal,” she told reporters.
She said all projects of the housing agencies had gone through the board and contracts were handled by the bids and awards committee.
Senator Binay pointed out that the housing issue was beyond the scope of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee, which was supposed to look only into alleged anomalies in Makati during the Vice President’s term as mayor.
She said that despite the many allegations made in the long-running hearings, there had been no solid evidence presented against her father.
As example, she cited claims that the piggery in a vast farm supposedly owned by her father was air conditioned, but a visit to the place showed it had none.
The subcommittee hearings are no longer in aid of legislation, she said, but “in aid of ambition,” since Trillanes planned to run for higher office in 2016.
Sen. JV Ejercito, a Binay ally, also said the government’s housing agencies had been doing well in the past four years under the Vice President.
Good track record
Ejercito, who chairs the Senate urban planning, housing and resettlement committee, said the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) under Binay had had a good record.
“As far as I know, as the chair of the committee on housing, based on reports and accomplishments of Pag-Ibig and the HUDCC, they have had a good performance in the past four years,” Ejercito told reporters.
“Coming from the Delfin Lee anomaly in the previous administration, I think whoever took over the HUDCC, in this case Vice President Binay, and the new Pag-Ibig head … would be doubly careful that the controversy would not happen again,” he added.
Trillanes claimed that the Vice President favored certain developers in contracts for government housing projects.
Despite the allegations against the Vice President, many politicians still want to join his political party, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Senator Binay said.
Both Senators Binay and Ejercito also maintained that UNA remains solid as a party, though Ejercito said he hopes the party would hold a caucus soon so that it could guide its members on what they could do to help Vice President Binay, who is seeking the presidency in the 2016 elections.
