Alcover bares impeach 'bribe': Pork dangled for a 'yes' vote

CEBU, Philippines - ANAD Partylist Rep. Pastor Alcover, Jr. has accused the administration of President Benigno Aquino III of using the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as means to bribe members of the House to vote in favor of the impeachment of Ombudsman Merciditas Gutierrez.

Alcover said that congressmen who would not vote in favor of the impeachment were threatened that they would not receive their PDAF, which is also known as the pork barrel.

Alcover of the Cebu-based Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Partylist was among those voted “no” in the impeachment complaint.

Alcover disclosed that a day before the voting in the House plenary, Aquino’s political adviser Ronald Llamas called the congressmen to a meeting in Malacañang, but he did not go since he tagged Llamas as a leader of local communist group.

After the meeting, Alcover said he was told by his colleagues that they were assured of immediate release of their PDAF amounting to P70 million, another P20 million for projects from other agencies, and P20,000 cash to be given right after the voting.

Alcover challenged the Aquino administration to correct the system if he is true to his goal to put an end to the corruption.

Alcover described the impeachment of Gutierrez as a temporary solution to government corruption.

Alcover was criticized for voting “no” along with other Cebuano lawmakers such as Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia (2nd District), Rep. Pablo John Garcia (3rd District) and Rep. Benhur Salimbangon (4th District) as being allies of former president and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“ANAD Partylist voted against House Resolution 1089 even at the risk of losing our PDAF,” said Alcover.

Alcover said he registered a “no” vote, “because I was not convinced that there was probable cause to impeach Ombudsman Gutierrez. The Articles of Impeachment, as submitted by the House’s Justice Committee, contains the trappings of a vendetta.”

He was referring to the fact that most of the members of the House’s Justice Committee have pending cases before the Ombudsman, including the father of Committee Chairman Rep. Niel Tupaz of Iloilo.

“In fact, what ANAD is seeing here is a grand plan of forces out to destabilize government. The Justice Committee’s report was a result of the complaint filed by Riza Hontiveros-Baraquel of Akbayan, espousing Euro-Communism, and Renato Reyes of Bayan, the umbrella organization of all Maoist communist sectoral front organizations in the country,” he explained.

Also, ANAD is oblivious of the fact that the same complaint is a segment of an over-all scenario seeking to go after, in full throttle, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and orchestrated by forces and groups who are presently manipulating the administration of President Benig-no Simeon Aquino III.” 

“What transpired is the reality surrounding impeachment cases. It is a political numbers game where the number of allies of those either pro or against is all that matters,” Rep. Alcover explained.

Alcover expressed dismay that the deliberations in the committee and the plenary, “had consumed a lot of Congress’ precious time and effort considering that the country is facing problems of gigantic proportion like the disturbing peace conditions in the Middle East and Northern Africa affecting our OFWs; the rising cost of oil products, the unsettling peace talks between the government and Maoist terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF, among others which should have been given priority by government.” — /NLQ (FREEMAN)