Joker tells Ping to stick to P200M double entry

BY DENNIS GADIL

SEN. Joker Arroyo yesterday accused Sen. Panfilo Lacson of obscuring the issue on the P200 million double entry controversy by reviving his tiff with Senate President Manuel Villar when they were still congressmen.

"He has deliberately cluttered the issues, from the original issue of double entry to corruption in the halls of Congress to Congressman Arroyo’s attack against Mr. Villar while we were both in the House of Representatives," Arroyo said in a privilege speech.

Arroyo said Lacson should stick to the core issue on the double entry in this year’s budget for the C-5 road extension in Parañaque and prove that it was tainted with corruption.

"It would be idiocy to bite the poisoned bait. We should zero in on what he started – the double entry. Sen. Lacson should not run away from that."

Lacson, Arroyo said, was side-stepping the issue "by diverting the battle to another stage – the attack of Congressman Arroyo on then Speaker Villar."

Arroyo said Lacson must be able to prove that "there was an anomaly and that there was corruption and that the Senate was a party to the corruption."

Arroyo also insisted that the double entry allegation was false and a dud, demonstrating through a power-point presentation that the first P200 million initiated by Malacañang was actually for a flyover in Sucat that would link the Parañaque portion of the C-5 project to Las Piñas.

He said the second P200 million inserted by the Senate was supposed to go to the construction of a second flyover that would link the Parañaque portion of the road project to Coastal Road in Las Piñas.

Arroyo said the first P200 million has already been disbursed while the second amount was not.

"The double entry is not a double entry," he said.

Arroyo said Lacson was opposing progress in Cavite, where he’s from, by claiming that there was double entry and, therefore, corruption in the road project.

He said congressmen and mayors of Cavite are supporting the road project as against the "lonely voice" of Lacson.

Arroyo stressed Lacson’s claim of alleged double entry "insults the intelligence" of the senators.

"We must be careful with our words. Be prudent but not careless," he said.

Arroyo also slammed Lacson for violating the time-honored tradition that once a resolution is referred to the committees, the proponent could no longer deliver speeches related to the same resolution nor buttress his position on the same subject.

"If that were allowed, a sponsor could unduly make use of both the plenary and the committee as a forum for the same subject and thereby give him an undue advantage," he said.

"Once referred to the committee, you lay off your hands (and) give a chance to the committees to operate."

Lacson took the floor to rebut Arroyo and insisted the 2008 budget made no mention about a Coastal Road flyover that would be constructed under the C-5 extension road project.

"Definitely, this is a double entry," Lacson said.

Lacson delivered his second privilege speech Monday throwing more accusations against Villar for allegedly sponsoring legislation when he was still House Speaker that directly benefited his housing interests.

Lacson also said Villar’s companies obtained billions of loans from the government.

He said the same allegations were hurled by the Makati Rep. Arroyo against Villar when both were congressmen. Arroyo’s attacks against Villar were as an off-shoot of their bitter rivalry for the speakership, which was won by the latter.

CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

Lacson said Sen. Arroyo now has a credibility problem because he is now one of Villar’s most "rabid" defenders in the "road-to-nowhere" double-entry mess.

"Villar was demolished by Joker’s own words. A two-face Joker will always have a credibility problem wherever he goes," he said in a statement.

In his privilege speech Monday night, Lacson said no less than Arroyo twitted Villar over that conflict of interest when they were both in the House of Representatives 10 years ago.

"Don’t you find some similarities in the situation in 1998 and the situation this year 2008? The only difference is that Sen. Joker Arroyo is almost rabidly defending Sen. Villar in this case, whereas in 1998 he was the one who stood on the floor on a question of personal and collective privilege lambasting him on the floor ... for practically the same offense, for practically the same actions taken by the Senate President now and House Speaker in 1998," he said.

Arroyo delivered a privilege speech on Aug. 17, 1998 as Makati congressman, questioning then Speaker Villar’s dealings with government agencies to benefit his business interests.

Villar, he noted, chose "not to answer" Arroyo’s questions on whether the then House Speaker violated the anti-graft and corrupt practices act’s provision that it will be unlawful for any member of Congress during the term for which he has been elected to "acquire or receive any personal or pecuniary interest in any specific business enterprise which will be favored or benefited by any law or resolution authored by him, previously approved and adopted by Congress during the same term."

The charges Arroyo lined up against Villar at the time included:

• Then Speaker Villar and low-cost housing companies he owns or controls got financial accommodation from government banks or financial institutions such as Pag-IBIG and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC);

• Then Rep. Villar, from 1992 to 1998, did not divest himself of his interest in, or sever his connections with the companies. Even up to now, he has not severed his ties with those firms.

• Villar’s Capitol Bank, where his wife Cynthia is chief executive officer, received loans, financial accommodations and guarantees from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from 1992 to 1998 while he was a representative, an act that is constitutionally forbidden.

• Rep. Villar, in his bid for the Speakership, prepared a propaganda kit where he said he incorporated in the landmark comprehensive and integrated shelter finance act, R.A. 7835, the re-capitalization of the NHMFC and amendment to the agri-aqua law to including housing. Yet, he did not divest himself of his interests in the companies that benefited from it.

• Manuela Corp., a housing and realty firm owned by the family of Villar’s wife, applied for and was granted a loan of P1 billion from the Social Security System and another P2 billion loan from Government Service Insurance System. This, according to then Rep. Arroyo, was an "indirect financial accommodation."

• While all lands covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program cannot be used for residential, industrial and other uses unless a clearance conversion or exemption for a particular property is first issued by DAR, then Speaker Villar’s companies have developed 5,950 hectares or almost 60 million square meters of CARP lands without appropriate DAR issuances that would authorize such lands to be used for residential purposes.

CHATTERBOX

Lacson also said he is no longer wasting his time dealing with "squid tactic" allegations from Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, particularly on double-entry mess. Cayetano is secretary general of the Nacionalista Party of which Villar is the president.

POLITICAL GAME

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said he does not find anything unusual with the current disagreement between Villar and Lacson.

"As with the ongoing Senate discussion, changes of political alignments, political parties are but incarnation of the maxim that in politics there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests," Cruz said. Lacson and Villar ran under the Genuine Opposition ticket in 2007.

Cruz, a former CBCP president, said there is no doubt in his mind that the current Senate row is all part of the political game leading all the way to the 2010 elections. – With Gerard Naval