Pangilinan won’t reopen Cayetano case

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate committee on ethics, stood pat yesterday on the committee decision not to reopen the case against Sen. Renato Cayetano who has been cleared of any wrongdoing in dealing with stocks of Best World Resources.

He defended the ethics committee’s findings that there was no evidence indicating that Cayetano’s investments in BW stocks were not ordinary transactions of a regular stock player.

He stressed that there was nothing precipitate or premature in the decision, which was arrived at after more than four months of hearings.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. had assailed Pangilinan for refusing to reopen the case to hear more witnesses identified by the minority, including broadcaster Jay Sonza and Cayetano himself.

Pimentel said Sonza’s testimony is important because he conducted a live interview with BW Resources founder Dante Tan on the sale of BW shares to Cayetano.

Pangilinan, however, rejected this claim of Pimentel. He said that the committee called Sonza thrice to talk about his radio interview with Tan, but Sonza failed to appear even once.

He added that Pimentel had also asked the ethics committee to summon Neil Ocampo of dzMM.

"But when we asked for his affidavit, Ocampo said he knew nothing about the BW scam," he said.

Tan was called to testify before the committee but he was nowhere to be found. Broker Raul de Castro, who was named by complainant Jesus Crispin Remulla as witness, was heard by the committee.

"But De Castro said there was nothing unusual in the transaction between Tan and the senator. He also told the committee that Tan himself had guaranteed the investment was above board," Pangilinan recalled.

Pimentel said that the clearance of Cayetano was premature without hearing additional witnesses, including Cayetano himself. Pangilinan, however, countered that the ethics committee had been hearing the case for more than four months already so there was no haste involved in the decision.

"After four months, Senator Pimentel suddenly said that they want Cayetano to appear before the committee. He should have sought this while we were in the midst of hearing the case, not now," Pangilinan said.

He stressed that without the testimony of Tan who had direct dealings with Cayetano, other testimonies would only be hearsay. "It is easy to criticize and charge whitewash, but we should side with the truth. Our decision is based on law and on evidence," he added.

Cayetano had maintained that he is a regular stock player and that investing in stocks is something that is not related to his status as a senator. He claimed that the charge against him was a mere political hatchet job. – Efren Danao