Roque: Those hurt by quo warranto hitting Calida

Jose Calida–INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

The Palace on Monday took the side of Solicitor General Jose Calida, saying there was no conflict of interest in his family’s ownership of a security agency that bagged millions of pesos in contracts with government agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said it was “obvious” that this issue against Calida was being stirred up by those who were “hurt” by the solicitor general’s success in removing Maria Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice through a quo warranto petition granted by the Supreme Court last month.

Roque’s interpretation

Roque was responding to the call made by Sen. Francis Pangilinan for Calida to resign after it was learned that the solicitor general’s family owned a security agency named Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency and had snared P150 million in contracts from various government agencies.

“My reading of the Constitution and antigraft law supports the conclusion of SolGen Calida that there was no conflict of interest,” Roque said as he reminded reporters that Calida resigned from all his corporate posts when he became the solicitor general.

Roque also said Calida’s case was a “world of difference” from the controversy that involved former Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo Teo, who quit after the Commission on Audit questioned her department’s placement of advertisements on a television program run by her brother Ben.

No OSG contracts

He said Calida’s security agency also did not get contracts from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) because if it did, then there was conflict of interest there.

And while the family-owned security agency was able to get a contract from the DOJ, Roque said the DOJ was not under Calida, noting that the DOJ and the OSG were autonomous offices.

But what’s sauce for Teo should be sauce for Calida, or
so said Pangilinan, head of the opposition Liberal Party, who called on Calida on Monday to follow in the footstep of the
former tourism secretary by quitting his post after disclosures that his family’s security agency cornered government contracts.

“If 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,” Pangilinan said on his Facebook page.

OSG spokesperson Hector Calilung earlier issued a statement denying there was conflict interest in the contracts won by the security agency owned by Calida’s wife and children.

No conflict

He said Calida resigned as chair and president of Vigilant on May 30, 2016, before he assumed office.

In a separate statement, Sen. Risa Hontiveros challenged President Rodrigo Duterte to sack Calida and to file the appropriate charges against him.

“I challenge President Duterte to prove his anticorruption rhetoric. I challenge him to not only fire Mr. Calida, but also to file the necessary charges against him,” Hontiveros said.

Beleaguered by calls for his resignation due to alleged conflict of interest, Calida avoided media questions at the Senate where he met with Senate leaders to push for a bill to enhance the powers of his office.

“I will defend myself at the proper forum,” he told reporters after saying he would let his lawyer make a statement.