Puno, Razon snub Senate hearing on ‘cash gifts’

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. snubbed yesterday the Senate hearing on the reported cash distribution inside Malacañang last month.

Puno, whose colleagues from Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) revealed that the money, ranging from P100,000 to P500,000, handed to governors last Oct. 11 came from party funds,  skipped the hearing because he was abroad.

Senate Blue Ribbon committee chair Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said Puno formally informed the committee about his absence.

Razon, for his part, told the committee that there was no mention about the PNP in the original resolution filed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson calling for the inquiry into the cash gifts.

Lacson dragged the PNP into the cash distribution controversy because he received reports that part of the PNP’s P1-billion special anti-insurgency operations budget could have been diverted to Kampi funds and subsequently used in the cash distribution in Malacañang.

More than 22 governors – including League of Provinces of the Philippines secretary general Ben Evardone – did not appear in yesterday’s hearing despite being invited by the committee.

Only Bulacan Gov. Joselito Mendoza, Bank of Commerce executive vice president Arturo Manuel Jr., Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) executive director Vicente Aquino and Palace finance officer Gloria Bundoc were present.

The AMLC executive reiterated several times during the hearing that the council did not receive suspicious transactions regarding the funds in question.

“There was no showing that there was violation of AMLC,” said Aquino.

To remedy what he sees as loopholes in the anti-money laundering law, Aquino said there is a need to include direct and indirect bribery as underlying activity or predicate of the crime and proposed that the AMLA’s power be further strengthened by dispensing with the requirement to get a court order before they scrutinize any bank account.

Manuel explained the complicated process of the cash distribution of the bank which makes it difficult to identify who could have withdrawn the cash gifts.

He claimed that he did not receive reports of massive withdrawals around July when the cash was supposed to have been withdrawn.

He invoked possible violation of the bank secrecy law when asked by Sen. Panfilo Lacson to reveal if businessman Reghis Romero II, chairman of the board of the R2 Builders Inc., had an account with the bank.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. also mentioned that the committee will invite Winona Yumul Bondoc of the BOC-Angeles main office to the next hearing.

Responding to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s query, Mendoza said he did not consider the P500,000 given to him in Malacañang last Oct. 11 as bribery.

Mendoza testified that a female staff of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) first approached him during the meeting at the Palace and informed him about the cash intended for barangay projects.