Joker hits opposition over Cayetano case

Sen. Joker Arroyo lashed yesterday at the Senate opposition for "whining and wailing" to media about the decision of the ethics committee clearing Sen. Renato Cayetano despite their "failure" to prove their case.

The opposition, led by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., continued to hammer away at Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the ethics committee, for concluding that Cayetano acted correctly in trading stocks of the Best World Resources,

The committee report was signed by all its six majority members: Juan Flavier, Noli de Castro, Manuel Villar, Loren Legarda, Pangilinan and Arroyo. All four minority members refused to sign.

Arroyo said the four minority members could have filed their dissent but they did not.

"They just keep on whining and wailing to media for their failure to prove their case," Arroyo charged.

Pimentel wanted the committee to summon Dante Tan, founder of Best World but Tan was nowhere to be found.

"What the minority wants is for the committee to wait forever until Dante Tan, in his own good time, shows up. That just cannot be done under the rules," Arroyo argued.

The minority also wanted broadcaster Jay Sonza to testify before the committee but Sonza failed to appear on the scheduled hearing. Arroyo surmised that this could be because Sonza had no first-hand knowledge of the Cayetano transactions but only of what was told him in an interview.

"Such testimony would have been hearsay, which cannot help the committee," he added.

He pointed out that any inquiry must be concluded at some point and cannot be left hanging forever.

He contended that the refusal of the minority senators to sign the committee report does not invalidate the report. He said that rather than blame the committee, the opposition should blame themselves.

"The minority never did their homework. They went to the hearings unprepared," he said.

Arroyo also cited a witness of the opposition, broker Raul de Castro, who even cleared Cayetano, saying there was nothing irregular in Cayetano’s deals on the controversial stock.

"Their failure to prove their case and their habitual absences in the hearings just showed that they were never truly interested in the case," Arroyo said. — Efren Danao