Saturday, October 20, 2007 Nalzaro: Payoff probe: A muro-muro By Bobby Nalzaro Saksi
THE Malacañang-initiated investigation on the purported distribution of money to lawmakers and local officials during a meeting with Presient Arroyo last week at the Palace is a “muro-muro.”
Maybe the President thinks the Filipinos are dumb. She cannot claim innocence of the payoff because it happened inside Malacañang. As the saying goes, “You can fool all the people sometimes but not all the time.”
Manila Rep. Bienvinido Abante, who admitted to have received P500,000, claimed that the Malacañang staff distributed the money as the President left the meeting. Some congressmen and governors who admitted receiving money gave different versions. Some claimed unknown Palace staff distributed the money that was placed inside brown gift bags right inside Malacañang, while others claimed they got it from the Office of the House Speaker.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the scope of the investigation by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission would determine who was responsible for the alleged incident and to determine the source of funds. President Arroyo and her top senior aides have kept mum on the issue.
Bunye said they can assure the public that no government funds changed hands. Bunye’s statement somewhat confirmed that indeed money changed hands during that meeting. But if there were no government funds involved, where did all that money came from? Who are those private philanthropists and generous groups?
Why do I call this probe a “muro-muro” (farce)? Because we know for a fact that Arroyo herself was aware of the dole-outs and I believe she ordered the release of the funds to her political allies. Do you think a cabinet member could order the release of that huge amount which was estimated to have reached roughly P200 million without a go-signal from higher ups? They suspect that the money came from the multi-billion intelligence, discretionary or social funds of the chief executive.
I presumed the Malacañang staff really prepared the money the night before because the funds were placed in uniform brown gift bags. According to the source, the recipients were like tourists that came out of a shopping mall carrying uniformed shopping bags.
It was not clear what the purpose of the gift-giving was. Some said it was a Christmas gift while others said it was an allowance. But others interpreted it as a form of bribery to congressmen because of the impeachment complaint filed against the President, which is now pending before the House of Representatives. As for the local officials, it was meant to buy loyalty or for barangay elections purposes.
But some of Arroyo’s allies tried to parry the negative impact of the gift-giving incident by saying that it was the handiwork of the opposition to discredit the President. Susmaryosep! Arroyo’s lapdogs are diverting the issue. Are they trying to poison the mind of the public that members of the opposition were able to penetrate the closely-guarded Malacañang just to distribute the money there?
If that was the scenario, Presidential Security Group members could have arrested those people.
But granting the President is really innocent all she has to do is to review the footages taken by Malacañang security cameras. Naa man gani security camera sa Capitol sa Malacañang na ba kaha. Magpagoryoy-goryo pa gyod si PGMA.
