Escudero asks peace adviser Teresita Deles to explain P5-M assistance to MILF

MANILA, Philippines—Presidential peace adviser Teresita “Ding” Deles must explain the P5 million funding assistance to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or else face possible charges in court, a senator said on Thursday.

Senator Fancis “Chiz” Escudero said the Office of Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP) being headed by Deles might have violated the law when it released the money for the rebels.

“OPAPP is not an implementing agency. By its very name, it’s supposed to advise the President,” Escudero said during a regular forum in the Senate.

“I think it’s going beyond its mandate by actually implementing projects, releasing money and actually doing projects in the ground,” he said.

And since it was outside the OPAPP’s mandate, Escudero said, the release of fund would be a violation either of the Code of Ethical Standards of Public Officials or the Anti-Graft Law.

But Deles, the senator said, must first answer the source of the money and how this will be spent.

Escudero believes that it was Deles who initiated the funding assistance for the rebels.

“Si Deles ang hepe ng OPAPP noon time ni GMA, malamang sya ang nangako nyan. Kinumbisi nya si GMA at malamang kinumbinsi nya ulit si Pangulong Aquino na gawin yan at tuparin yung pangakong binigay nya noon sya pa ang head ng OPAPP, (Deles was chief of the OPAPP during the time of GMA. She had probably convinced GMA and now, she managed to convince President Aquino to fulfill the promise she gave when she was head of the OPAPP)” he pointed out.

GMA is the initials of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo .

Deles was part of the Arroyo government but she resigned at the height of massive cheating allegations against the former leader in 2005.