Umali dismisses Gadon’s bribery claims as ‘kwentong kutsero’

Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chair of the House Committee on Justice (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

House justice committee chairman Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali is not bothered by the claim of lawyer Lorenzo Gadon that an ally of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is planning to bribe senators with P200 million to acquit the top magistrate if the impeachment trial reaches the Senate.

“I don’t want to be bothered by it kasi wala namang… baka kwentong kutsero lang ‘yon (because there’s no… it could just be hearsay),”  Umali said in an interview on Monday.

Asked if the committee would act on Gadon’s information, Umali said the committee would rather “focus on the more important matters of establishing the charges.”

Gadon, the complainant in the impeachment against Sereno, earlier said he was “verifying information” that a still unnamed oligarch promised to bribe some senators to absolve her in the impeachment trial.

“Ang dinig ko babayaran daw nila ng P200 million ang bawat Senador na boboto ng pagabswelto kay Sereno,” Gadon said.

(What I heard is they will pay P200 million to each senator who will vote to absolve Sereno.)

Sereno’s camp vehemently dismissed Gadon’s story as a lie. Some senators also called the claims as “pure hearsay.” /je