Drilon, 19 senators in bribery raps A former lawmaker on Friday accused Senate President Franklin Drilon of bribing 19 senator-judges with P1.1 billion from the Disbursement Acceleration Program to ensure a conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona at his impeachment trial. Former Iloilo City congressman Augusto Syjuco also included the 19 senator-judges as Drilon’s co-respondents in the complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, but they were listed as “Senator John Does and Senator Jane Does.” Suit. Former Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco holds up copy of a complaint he filed with the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City against Senate President Franklin Drilon alleging corruption in the construction of the Justice Hall building in Iloilo. Manny Palmero “As early as December 2011, when the Senate was convened into an impeachment court, or at the height of the impeachment trial, the senator-judges already knew there were additional P50-million and P100-million worth of projects that were dangled by Drilon and surely would be granted to them by the Palace, on top of their annual allocation of P200 million in pork barrel allocations,”said Syjuco in his complaint. Aside from direct bribery, Syjuco also accused Drilon of graft and corruption and “corrupting government officials.” He also demanded that Drilon be placed under “preventive suspension for six months without pay” so as not to influence the investigation to be conducted by the Ombudsman. The Manila Standard tried but was unable to reach Drilon for comment as the Senate President was out of the country as part of the entourage of President Benigno Aquino III, who was on an official state visit to South Korea. Syjuco said the crime of bribery was committed as early as Nov. 22, 2011, when Drilon, as chairman of the Senate committee on finance and a party whip of the ruling Liberal Party, asked the senators to submit their letters for projects shortly before the Senate was convened as an impeachment court on Dec. 14, 2011, barely two days after the impeachment complaint signed by 188 House members was transmitted to the Senate. Syjuco said the bulk of the funds was released in August 2011, a few days after the guilty verdict was handed down by the Senate impeachment court on May 29, 2011. He said the DAP funds were released in tranches for the senators who voted to convict Corona up to February 2013. Syjuco said he believed the DAP was specifically created for the purpose of paying off the senator-judges to oust Corona. “The focus of this complaint is the scandalous, unlawful and felonious acts of respondent Franklin Magtunao Drilon in bribing and paying off several legislators, herein referred to as Senator John Does and Senator Jane Does, for their votes of a guilty verdict which led to the impeachment and removal from office of former Chief Justice Renato C. Corona,” Syjuco said in the complaint. “The conviction and removal from office of Corona was ensured by respondent Drilon at a very high price, the amount, a staggering P1.1 billion. This is the amount of public money which Drilon unlawfully used to facilitate his devious scheme of bribing and paying off senator judges, especially himself, to vote for the conviction and impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato C. Corona,” Syjuco said. Syjuco said Drilon awarded himself P100 million in DAP funds, followed by Senator-judge Francis Escudero with P99 million and then Presiding Judge and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile with P92 million. The rest of the senators were given P50 million each while the three senator-judges – Miriam Defensor Santiago, Joker Arroyo and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – who voted to acquit Corona, got not a single centavo, Syjuco said. Syjuco tagged Drilon as the mastermind, and giver of funds as the latter was “thinking way ahead of everyone else when he commenced the implementation of his nefarious scheme.” Syjuco said if the purpose of the DAP was to pump prime the economy, lawmakers need not turn to the Executive branch of the government and ask for additional allocations. “Respondent Franklin Magtunao Drilon claimed that he used the amount for infrastructure projects in Iloilo City which is launching a bid to host an APEC ministerial meeting in 2015. He further admitted but la-mented, and we quote: “The question is: was it used in the right way? Secondly, this was because our spending program was low so our GDP was affected. Is there anything wrong if it was used in the proper way?” “The point is that, there was no proper way in its conception, creation and pay-outs. Respondent Drilon is derailing the issue and deceptively missing the point. The proper question should be: Was the allocation of the budget from the DAP created during the height of the impeachment process— from its initiation to trial and finally to conviction—of Corona and then subsequently followed by pay-outs from the DAP fund? Were the funds being offered and peddled through private communications to Senators initiated by Drilon? Were these funds actually disbursed, distributed and received by the Senators as induced by Drilon? Were these funds released for the purpose intended for the additional disbursements actually served and Chief Justice Renato Corona was actually impeached? “The answer to all these questions is: YES. Then, no matter where Drilon used the additional allocation from DAP even for an alleged noble purpose, which is in itself questionable, there is no lack of proof that it was intended primarily as inducement for a specific purpose and that is, the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona,” Syjuco said. Besides, he said these additional allocations were taken from a “coming-from-no-where DAP,” which he said, by itself is constitutionally flawed. “Buttressed by the foregoing, I believe strongly that there is great urgency for the imposition of a preventive suspension order against Drilon. This call is necessary in order to uphold and protect the greater interests of the Filipinos and this nation. We cannot compromise the integrity of this investigation considering the gravity of the allegations and the imminent dangers that it poses to the Philippine government and all Filipinos everywhere,” Syjuco said. manilastandardtoday/2013/10/19/drilon-19-senators-in-bribery-raps/
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 22:40:34 +0000
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