Malampaya Fund hearing set next month

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate has scheduled the initial hearing on the alleged misuse of the Malampaya Fund next month.

Se. Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said the hearings would begin on Sept. 25, in fulfillment of their mandate “to investigate alleged wrongdoings of the government and its public officials.”

Guingona came out with the statement after some senators reiterated their calls to start the inquiry.

Sen. Nancy Binay on Monday issued a statement expressing her concern over the apparent lack of interest by the Senate Blue Ribbon to start the inquiry.

“What happened to the resolutions calling for a probe on the Malampaya Fund scam? If we truly want to uncover the truth then by now, the panel should have at least held one hearing on the issue,” Binay said.

Binay urged Guingona to start the investigation on the Malampaya Fund scam as soon as possible.

“Let us show the people that we are committed to investigating the anomalies hounding our government,” she said.

Binay proposed the Blue Ribbon should create a subcommittee to focus on the issue, in the same way that Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III was tasked to handle the probe on the alleged overpricing of a building in Makati involving her father Vice President Jejomar Binay and brother Mayor Junjun Binay.

The Blue Ribbon committee earlier deferred the Malampaya Fund scam hearing, citing the unavailability of its resource person from the Commission on Audit (COA).

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito earlier filed a resolution urging the immediate investigation of the Malampaya Fund mess while his half-brother, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, asked the Senate to uncover the anomaly concerning the Malampaya funds.

Estrada, now detained for plunder charges over pork barrel fund misuse, hinted former presidential liaison officer Ruby Tuason got over P100-milion kickbacks out of transactions related to the Malampaya Fund misuse.

Tuason had accused Estrada of taking cash kickbacks out of his pork barrel fund allocations but which the detained senator has denied.

Among the senators, Sen. Ralph Recto was also keen on finding out how the government spent the P900-million Malampaya Fund, which had early on been certified by the National Treasurer to have been spent during the past administration.

Binay raised the concern even as suspected pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim-Napoles, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several others are facing plunder complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman for their supposed hand in the Malampaya Fund anomaly.

“I fear that the issue has been placed on the backburner now that the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel racket, who is also involved in the Malampaya Fund scam, Janet Lim-Napoles, has been placed behind bars,” Binay said.

“This should not make us complacent, in fact, we should work harder to solve these cases now that we can summon Napoles to the hearings,” Binay added.

Meanwhile, Estrada asked the Sandiganbayan yesterday to stop Undersecretary Jose Justiniano from acting as prosecutor in the plunder and graft cases filed against him.

Estrada filed a motion seeking the disqualification of the ranking official of the Department of Justice on grounds that his deputization is illegal.

Estrada, who attended his bail hearing at the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, said Justiniano, formerly a private lawyer who handled big ticket cases, should not be allowed to be a member of the prosecution team of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Citing Article VII Section 13, Paragraph 1 of the 1987 Constitution, Estrada argued Cabinet members and their undersecretaries are barred by law from holding any other office or employment during their tenure.

Estrada, through his lawyers, argued an undersecretary’s job involves performing policy-making functions and not the professional functions of state prosecutors or fiscals.

Estrada also argued Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales’ act of deputizing the DOJ undersecretary to act as a prosecutor encroaches on the President’s control over the executive department.

Such deputization, he added, violates the Civil Service Law “which prohibits the appointment of a person in the non-career service from performing duties properly belonging to the career service.”

In response, Justiniano said it will be up to the Office of the Ombudsman to answer Estrada’s claims and arguments.

Justiniano said he doesn’t mind being disqualified if the law really says that he cannot be deputized as a prosecutor, but he believes there is no such prohibition.

“There’s no additional compensation. It’s up to the Office of the Ombudsman to answer the motion,” he said.

He explained the law only prohibits a government official from receiving a salary for two or more positions.  – With Michael Punongbayan