Pangilinan wants Calida to resign

Solicitor General Jose Calida and Senator Francis Pangilinan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Senator Francis Pangilinan has called on Solicitor General Jose Calida to resign amid reports that his family-owned security firm had allegedly cornered multi-million-peso deals from various government agencies.

Pangilinan made the call in a Facebook post on Monday.

“If DoT Secretary Wanda Teo resigned because the DoT/PTV 4 favored her Tulfo brothers’ TV production company to the tune of P60 Million worth of government contracts then Solicitor General Jose Calida, the lawyer of the government, should resign as well for P150 million worth of government contracts in the DoJ (OSG is an attached agency), Pagcor, NEDA etc that went to the security guard/agency belonging to his wife and children (kasi nag resign na daw siya),” the senator wrote.

“Family TV production company. Family Security agency. Same same. Halos times 3 nga lang ‘yung halaga nung kay Calida,” he added.

Teo had stepped down from her post at the height of the controversy hounding the Department of Tourism (DoT) over its P60-million advertisement deal with the state-run, People’s Television Network Inc. (PTNI).

READ: Teo resigns as Tourism secretary

The ad placement reportedly went to a program produced by Teo’s brother, Ben Tulfo, and co-hosted by another brother, Erwin Tulfo.

READ: COA: Teo’s DOT paid P60M for ads on brother Tulfo’s PTV 4 show

Calida and his family, meanwhile, reportedly owned the Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency which allegedly bagged P150 million in contracts from various government agencies.

The allegation was also mentioned in a complaint filed against Calida by retired businesswoman Jocelyn Marie Acosta-Nisperos before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Despite the claim of Calida’s camp that he was no longer connected with the security agency, Pangilinan still believed that the Solicitor General should step down from his office.

“Yes. So what? Teo wasn’t connected with Bitag,” the senator said in a text message when asked if he would still press for Calida’s resignation even if it will be ascertained that he was indeed no longer part of the firm. Bitag is the program of the Tulfo brothers aired on PTV-4.

“’Yung kay Teo nga kapatid eh. Ito asawa at anak… At abogado sya (Calida) ng mga ahensya na ito,” Pangilinan added.               /kga