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MANILA, Philippines — The 18 men described as former Marines and their lawyer, Levi Baligod, did not appear Monday, June 8, as the Gatchalian bloc-led Blue Ribbon Committee opened its hearing on the flood control controversy.
The hearing, presided over by committee chair Sen. Erwin Tulfo, pushed ahead after being reset from June 4 to give committee members time to review the list of resource persons and the process for inviting them.
The group, however, appeared last week at a Cayetano bloc-led proceeding with Sens. Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano and Rodante Marcoleta, where they repeated sweeping claims about alleged cash deliveries to politicians. The bloc claimed that it was a Blue Ribbon inquiry into flood control projects.
The competing hearings are a spillover from the Senate leadership dispute that followed the June 3 shakeup, which installed Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate president pro tempore and led the new majority to reorganize committee posts, including Tulfo’s designation as Blue Ribbon chair.
Cayetano, who has rejected the shakeup as illegal, has insisted that the reorganization was invalid and that Pia Cayetano remains the rightful chair of the panel.
Allegations. The 18 men had earlier alleged that they delivered, by land, sea and air, some P805 billion in flood control kickbacks concealed in suitcases to several officials and political figures, many of whom are critics of former president Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing her own impeachment complaints over graft, malversation and death threats hurled at President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Some of the men's claims have since been challenged on factual and logistical grounds, with Sen. Ping Lacson citing the difficulty of transporting that much cash and estimating it would require 13,416 large suitcases.
Several named officials have also denied the allegations. Tulfo and Sen. Tito Sotto have said they would pursue libel and cyberlibel complaints against Baligod and the 18 men after they were linked to supposed kickbacks during last week’s Cayetano bloc-led hearing.
The Senate’s new Blue Ribbon panel was aiming to determine whether the allegations stand under the reorganized committee, or whether it will challenge the credibility and handling of the witnesses in the rival probe. — with reports from Adrian Parungao
