PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte moderated his tone regarding his earlier statement that "lobby money" influenced the vote of Commission on Appointments' member on the rejected ad interim appointment of Regina Paz "Gina" Lopez as Environment Secretary, a Palace official said on Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte, in a Cabinet meeting Monday night, had mentioned that some "interested parties" might have attempted to influence the CA to reject Lopez's ad interim appointment.
Abella, however, said the President had clarified that he was not making a "pejorative" accusation that money had been lobbied to secure the rejection of Lopez before the CA.
"We need to correct that. You know, the President did say last night, when he said lobby, it’s not necessarily money. He corrected himself and he clarified himself. When he said that when he said lobby, people automatically assume that there was an exchange of money," he said.
"But he said, basically, that lobby – he says – is a legal thing that you can actually exercise, in order to persuade once particular position. So it was not pejorative. He was saying, in a sense, he was clarifying last night, it was not a pejorative accusation that money was exchanged," the presidential spokesman added.
Last week, Duterte was saddened that Lopez had failed to get the approval of CA on her ad interim appointment as Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Lopez had faced strong criticisms following her decision to shut down the operations of 23 erring mining companies and suspend the five others.
Duterte had hinted that critics of Lopez attempted to influence the CA. The Chief Executive had said, “You know how it is. This is democracy and lobby money talks.”
Abella defended the President and said that what the latter really meant was there was “legitimate persuasion” to discourage CA from voting in favor of Lopez.
"He gave a gloss on what he said last night. I was just transmitting to you," Abella said. "He added more light to his statement… There was a lobby [but] in other words, [it’s] a persuasion, legitimate persuasion."
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, CA chair, said he will need evidence to start with the probe into the alleged "lobby money."
Pimentel said each CA member is expected to vote and decide according to principle and conscience. He further said that the allegations of "lobby money" will affect the integrity of the CA.
Some senators also expressed disappointment on some of their colleagues in CA who were trying to twist the truth by saying they voted for the confirmation of Lopez when the truth is that these lawmakers really voted against the confirmation of the DENR chief.
On Monday, Malacañang announced that former military chief Roy Cimatu had been chosen by Duterte to replace Lopez in the DENR post.
Abella said that Duterte was confident that Cimatu has the qualities to "strike an objective point of view regarding DENR."
"He (Duterte) said that he felt that Cimatu was extraordinary gifted for the task of balancing environmental concerns with mining operations concerns. So I supposed what the President was saying is basically looking really for balance," he said. (With Camille Balagtas/SunStar Philippines)
