Abad liable for falsification of legislative documents The ripples caused by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s disclosure in a privilege speech of an apparent “payoffs,” “rewards,” or “incen-tives” to senator judges in the im-peachment court who convicted Chief Justice Renato Corona that led to his ouster as head of the Supreme Court (SC) appears to run deep with a former member of the Senate saying culpability of the Palace remains despite the explanations it had made on the extra funds distributed. The insinuation that the Executive “rewarded” the senators who voted for conviction puts Mala-cañang on a slippery slope, making it answerable on the charge of at least im-propriety, if not outright bribery, and the buck stops right at the presidential doorstep, former Sen. Joker Arroyo said yesterday. Reacting to the Tribune banner story carrying the carrying the admission of Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad on the release of P1.2 billion “stimulus funds” to senators between 2012 and 2013, on top of their regular P200 million annual allocation of pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in the national budget, Arroyo said the Cabinet official opens himself to liability “for the crime of falsification of legislative documents.” “Abad opens himself to liability for the crime of falsification of legislative documents under Articles 170 and 171 of the Revised Penal Code which penalizes, ‘any public officer who, taking advantage of his official position shall falsify a document by causing it to appear that persons have participated in any act or proceeding when they did not in fact so participate (or) making untruthful statement in the narration of facts,” he said. “That is exactly what Abad did when he issued a deceptively crafted press release that made it appear that, although I voted to acquit Corona, I was, nonetheless, given P47 million along with other senators who allegedly received P50 million each over and above their PDAF allocations, which is now perceived to be a gratuity for their vote of conviction,” he added. While Arroyo was among those who voted to acquit Corona during the impeachment trial last year alongside Senators Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Abad said funding releases were made following a request from Arroyo this year in the amount of P47 million. The former senator, however, explained that his “funding requests” were nothing unusual as he has been consistent in seeking the same during budget deliberations and as such, the said amount he sought were “amendments introduced in the General Appropriation Act of 2013 and ‘not’ PDAF by any language.”
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 04:51:50 +0000
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