GMA grants solons P90M each to kill impeach complaint

DESPERATE ARROYO CALLS CONGRESSMEN PERSONALLY FOR AMENDED CHARGE’S DISMISSAL

By Dona Policar and Gerry Baldo
Tuesday, 08 23, 2005

This is where road users' taxes are going: Not to the rehabilitation of the pockmarked roads nationwide but to congressmen who will support the dismissal of an amended impeachment complaint filed against President Arroyo.

The President was said to have called each congressman personally to pledge more multi-million goodies going the way of the anti-impeachment representatives who will stay firm in their decision not to sign the impeachment complaint filed by the political opposition.

Rewards and more rewards were said to already have reached the hands of congressmen who vowed not to support the amended impeachment complaint.

This wholesale bribery was disclosed yesterday as the pro-impeachment congressmen announced the names of their colleagues whom they said have already received their rewards

from Malacañang courtesy of the road users' tax.

At a press conference held yesterday, Rolex Suplico, House senior deputy minority leader, said rewards and concessions were already given to some administration congressmen, almost immediately after the the “Hello Garci” controversy surfaced.

Suplico added the administration lawmakers have been rewarded as much as P90 million in funds from the road users' tax to kill the impeachment complaint against the President.

House Minority Leader Francis Escudero said more and more congressmen also had been receiving calls from Mrs. Arroyo during the past several days even as he warned the President that her move is impinging on the independence of Congress and the credibility of the entire impeachment process.

“I think Mrs. Arroyo should be cautioned against calling members of Congress and urging them not to support the impeachment complaint. That is impinging upon the independence of Congress and the credibility of the entire process,” Escudero said during the same press conference.

He added he has no personal knowledge of the conversations between Mrs. Arroyo and the lawmakers but there are many congressmen who told them that Mrs. Arroyo had personally talked to them over the phone, pleading with them not to sign the amended impeachment complaint.

South Cotabato Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio noted that Mrs. Arroyo was also calling even members of the congressmen's families, their governors and mayors.

“It's not just the congressmen whom she (Mrs. Arroyo) calls. Even the whole family members are being called by her for the same purpose. It is she who personally makes the calls,” Antonino-Custodio said, adding only a few remaining lawmakers have yet to receive a call from the President.

It was also disclosed by the minority congressmen that aside from Mrs. Arroyo, Efraim Genuino of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. was also said to have been calling the lawmakers, with the same plea and the same handsome offers.

Escudero mentioned that those who already signed the impeachment complaint had turned her down while others who had not signed “took Mrs. Arroyo for a ride,” but signed the impeachment complaint later.

The actions of Mrs. Arroyo are no different from an accused in a criminal case, the Sorsogon congressman stressed.

“Here the accused is Mrs. Arroyo, but she has been calling on the prosecutors and the judge to go easy on her case,” Escudero said.

“It's a pointblank question, is she actively intervening in the impeachment complaint by calling members of Congress?” he asked.

The opposition lawmakers said the reactions of the congressmen who have received calls from Mrs. Arroyo were ambivalent.

The House committee on justice will resume the impeachment hearing at 12:30 p.m. today to decide whether to accept the prejudicial questions raised by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman that the committee should debate first whether to recognize the amended complaint.

Days before the President delivered her State of the Nation Address last month, the congressmen had reportedly been showered with “goodwill money” amounting to P200,000 each aside from projects and other concessions to ensure that the impeachment complaint against the Chief Executive would not prosper.

Suplico said the allegations that the congressmen are being “bought” in exchange for their killing the impeachment complaint have been proved to be true when the P2.22-billion road users' tax fund was given to favored congressmen, mostly members of the administration bloc.

Leyte Rep. Remedios Petilla was one of the luckiest members of the House, having received government funds from the road users' tax amounting to as much as P90 million.

Isabela Rep. Anthony Miranda, a staunch supporter of Mrs. Arroyo, received a special allotment release order (Saro) last July 4, along with Petilla, and another congressman, got for himself or for his district P65 million in funds from the road users' tax.

The third-highest amount was given to congressman-provincemate of the President, Jesus Reynaldo Aquino.

Miranda, for his part, hit at Suplico for imputing malice when he received the funds.

“There is political malice. It's unfair to come up with such accusation of a political payoff. Suplico is just full of envy since the report of the P65 million I got was wrong. I got P68 million, not P65 million,” he bragged.

Upon learning the revelations made by Suplico, there were other congressmen who complained when they said they failed to get even a single centavo from the road users' tax fund.

They hurriedly checked with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to see if they would be getting any allocation from the road users' tax aside from the “pork barrel” or priority development assistance fund that they usually receive.

Rep. Gilbert Remulla (Cavite), chairman of the House committee on public information that hears the wiretapping controversy, who is reportedly thinking of signing the impeachment complaint was not alloted a single centavo, and wondered aloud why he was not given any funding, considering that his district is one of the largest constituencies.

“It's as if there are no vehicles passing through my district, for the Palace not to give us part of the road tax,” Remulla said.

The same tax fund through the “Kalsada Natin, Alagaan Natin” project of the Arroyo administration was reportedly used to finance the campaign of the President during last year's elections.

“This was the same fund used to ensure that she would be installed, and now it is also being used to ensure that she would keep her place,” Suplico said.

Escudero pointed out that such rewards and concessions given merely manifest Malacañang's desperation in killing the impeachment complaint.

Other forms of concessions offered to the congressmen have also been offered and given, merely to ensure that they do not support the impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo.

“This is clearly blind loyalty on the part of some who are supporting the President and also gives us the indication that this is a transactional government, meaning government's action is on the basis of how it can get what it wants from politicians,” Escudero said.

Concessions that were offered include the relief order issued by the President against Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan from the 8th Infantry Division in Eastern Samar to woo two or three congressmen not to support the complaint.

“Complaints against Palparan have been there for the longest time. The question is why is he now being relieved and only because (on account of) one or two congressmen who signed or did not sign the impeachment complaint,” Escudero stressed.

He said the reconciliatory move being pushed by Malacañang is also highly questionable, adding this is yet another concession being offered by Malacañang to ensure that Mrs. Arroyo will not face impeachment.