Moment of truth at Senate's session today - Roxas

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Manual Roxas II has described today’s session at the Senate as a “day of reckoning” as they decide whether to investigate their own president.

“Monday is a day of reckoning, the moment of truth for the Senate. Are we strong enough to investigate ourselves?” Roxas asked as senators got ready to again face off on the P200-million double appropriations for the controversial C-5 Road Extension project.

Roxas challenged the Senate leadership to investigate its own president, Manuel Villar, tagged by Sen. Panfilo Lacson as responsible for the “double insertion” controversy.

Although Villar had explained that the budget involves two projects for a flyover and a road and there was no attempt on his part to pocket the money, some senators still sought a thorough investigation.

“If we refuse to investigate one of our own, the Senate will be completely castrated as the guardian of the public. We will lose all credibility, and the public will denounce us if we are not willing to come clean before them,” Roxas said.

Roxas argued that if the Senate investigated President Arroyo in the fertilizer scam, the NBN-ZTE scandal and many others, the Senate should also not distance itself from the C-5 Road controversy.

Administration Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri admitted that he also pushed for P80-million “insertions” in the 2008 budget.

“I believe that there is nothing wrong with insertions in the budget so as long as it was done with transparency and to uplift your advocacies,” he said.

“What would be wrong and corrupt is if the insertion was made for personal gain and when the construction is done by favored contractors that love to reciprocate with favors as well.”

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, chairman of the Senate finance committee that scrutinized and approved the budget, Sen. Pia Cayetano and Roxas have also made public their own insertions.

Rep. Mujiv Hataman of the party-list group Anak Mindanao admitted that he too erred in claiming that P1.9 billion was given in bonuses to 70 personnel of the Road Board, a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-attached agency.

“The correct figure is P1.9 million. This was given in 2005. In 2004, some P145 million in employee benefits was granted. But I still maintain that this was anomalous because the law provides that Road Board funds are to be used exclusively for road maintenance,” he said.

To be transparent, Zubiri is seeking amendments to the 2009 budget, which Congress has started deliberating on. His estimated amendments amount to about P73 million.

Meanwhile, on page 478 of President Arroyo’s budget proposal, under the DPWH, there is a P250-million appropriation for a project described as, “Construction of Pres. Garcia Ave (C-5) Extension.”

Of that amount, P187 million is for the “Sucat to Coastal Section, including right of way (ROW),” while P63 million is for “C. P. Garcia to Magsaysay Avenue.”

The P250 million is in addition to the P400 million “double appropriation” exposed by Lacson in the P1.23-trillion 2008 budget for a section of C. P. Garcia Extension.

The Department of Budget and Management has frozen Villar’s insertion since it is a repeat appropriation for the same road project.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. has referred to it as a “congressional initiative,” without saying who was its author.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, House appropriations committee chairman when Congress approved the 2008 outlay, said it was apparently Villar’s intention to augment the P200-million original appropriation contained in Mrs. Arroyo’s budget proposal.

“But he just doubled it instead of creating a new item. The addition will still be counted as his congressional initiative. It now appears that there are double entries in the budget for the same road project,” he said.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez questioned the DPWH’s failure to implement a P400-million “bridge and access road” project in his city that is funded under the 2008 budget.

In a related development, El Shaddai leader Bro. Mariano “Mike” Velarde said he would appear before the Senate, when called, to shed light on allegations that he received overpayments for the road right of way properties in the C-5 Extension project.

Velarde said he is willing to give his statement before the Senate “so that I would be able to help them solve their problem. Let us help them.”

But he denied allegations that he earned a huge profit when he sold a portion of his land to the government. – With Jess Diaz, Evelyn Macairan