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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
At least two more members of the
Arroyo Cabinet have revealed that congressmen who sit in the
powerful Commission on Appointments had asked for favors and
concessions in exchange for their confirmation.
On Thursday Negros Oriental Rep.
Herminio Teves said House members of the CA asked his son, Margarito,
P5 million for his confirmation as finance secretary.
On Friday it was the turn of
Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales and Secretary Domingo
Panganiban of the National Antipoverty Commission (NAPC) to say that
they had a similar experience when they went before the CA.
Morales said the CA members asked
for noncash concessions during a meeting with Finance Secretary
Margarito Teves in a restaurant in Quezon City.
“I was there. They did not ask
for money, but for some positions to be filled up with their chosen
men,” Morales told The Manila Times in a telephone interview.
He said, however, that it was
“normal” for congressmen to make such a request.
Morales and former BIR
commissioner Jose Mario Buñag were with Teves when he met with some
members the House CA contingent at the El Celino Bar and Restaurant,
which is owned by Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, the
outgoing congressman of the Third District of Eastern Samar and a
member of the CA.
Morales said present at that
meeting were Surigao Rep. Prospero Pichay, head of the House CA
contingent, Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico and two other congressmen whom
he said he could no longer remember.
Other congressmen in the CA are
Eduardo Veloso, Jesus Romualdo, Prospero Amatong, Manuel Ortega,
Rafeal Nantes, Antonio Roman, Aurelio Umali, Victor Sumulong and
Harlene Abayon.
Both Pichay and Suplico are
bowing out as congressmen. Pichay lost in the senatorial race, while
Suplico won as vice-governor of Iloilo.
Morales did not name the
congressmen who asked him for the concessions in the customs bureau.
Asked what Suplico asked, Morales
said he heard the lawmaker asking Teves for the transfer a certain
official of Land Bank of the Philippines in Iloilo. Teves was
LandBank chairman before he was named finance secretary.
In a radio interview, Libanan
denied the elder Teves’ claim and challenged him to identify the
congressmen who asked for P5 million. Suplico has also aired the
same challenge.
Libanan admitted he was at the
meeting but stressed that “nobody had asked for P5 million.”
Libanan’s chief of staff,
Norman G. Tansingco, told The Times that the BI chief was there but
“he was in another table.”
Panganiban said members of CA’s
House contingent asked him to provide them P80 million worth of
projects during his confirmation process.
Panganiban said he was
agriculture secretary at the time. He said after being asked for the
bribe, he chose not to go through with his confirmation.
Panganiban was later assigned to
NAPC and his position was handed over to Arthur Yap. Yap denied that
CA members tried to extort money from him when he was confirmed last
February.
“ I did not go through the same
experience. No one asked me for money,” Yap told DZMM Friday.
Instead of naming the congressmen
who tried to extort money from him, Panganiban cleared Sumulong and
Amatong.
House Majority Leader Prospero
Nograles and Isabela Rep. Rodito Albano III dared Congressman Teves
to identify the extorting congressmen.
The two said Teves’ revelation
has a sweeping effect, which makes congressmen look like “power
brokers.”
“There are 12 congressmen in
the CA and Representative Teves’s statement has tarnished all
their reputations. He must be fair to his colleagues in the House
and be specific in his charges,” Nograles said.
 --and
Abs-Cbn Interactive
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