A HEATED argument ensued between Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri during a Senate session on Tuesday.
Emotions went high between the two senators after Zubiri delivered a privilege speech denouncing Trillanes for saying there was intent to "whitewash" the supposed Senate investigation of two dismissed Bureau of Immigration (BI) associate commissioners.
The supposed probe of Trillanes' committee on civil service and government organizations aimed to look into the extortion and bribery attempt allegedly from Jack Lam who delivered P50 million bribe money to the immigration commissioners.
With the Senate voting 14-7 taking away the right of the Trillanes committee to investigate the bribery scandal, Trillanes accused Zubiri and Senator Richard Gordon of whitewashing the BI scam.
Trillanes said he did mind if Zubiri got offended for what he uttered, insisting that what he said is really true.
Trillanes tagged Zubiri as defender of the faith of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Aside from the alleged bribery attempt of Lam of two BI officials, the Chinese gambling magnate is also attempting to have some of his 1,316 illegal Chinese workers employed in his casino in Pampanga.
"We need to know the truth. We have to do our role as elected senators," Trillanes told his colleagues.
Zubiri admitted he was offended by Trillanes because of the latter calling him defender of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Trillanes immediately said it was his real intention to offend Zubiri, so that he knows that he was offending too for blocking them to investigate the matter.
Zubiri maintained he was never accused of whitewashing during his time as member of the House of Representatives, to which Trillanes said Zubiri even had this case of cheating in the 2007 elections that prompted him to resign as senator to give way to Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, the current Senate President.
Zubiri, who was obviously piqued, raised the rebellion case filed against Trillanes and his role in attacking those people believed to be enemies of the Liberal Party of former President Benigno Aquino III, which include former Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Trillanes said he is proud of going against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the issue of Binay, he said, should also be addressed by Zubiri to Senate President Pimentel, "because he was then the chairman of the committee investigating the former vice president."
Senators who pacified Trillanes and Zubiri include Pimentel, Cynthia Villar, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and Vicente Tito Sotto III.
Pimentel was forced to suspend the session for the two senators to cool off.
After a short break, Trillanes and Zubiri were seen talking again and shaking hands. Sotto said the exchange of unpleasant words like cheater and defender of the faith must be extracted from the record.
Meanwhile, Trillanes maintained that the anti-corruption laws should be revised and updated to deal with such cases of favoritism where those involved in corruption turn out to be fraternity brothers of the disciplining and appointing authority.
"We need to craft a law that will really protect us from abuse by those in power," Trillanes said.
The proposed Senate investigation should pave the way for enhancing the principle of command responsibility in bribery and corruption cases by penalizing negligence in the enforcement of laws on bribery and corruption, the senator said.
Earlier, Senator Leila De Lima called to have the two incidents investigated by the Senate blue ribbon committee, in aid of legislation, for purposes of improving and crafting more effective anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws.
Secretary of Justice Vitaliano Aguirre II earlier bared that Lam tried to bribe him with a P100-million monthly payola in exchange for shielding his gambling enterprise pursuits.
"That is the reason why we need to know in aid of legislation what is really going on," Trillanes said.
"If indeed Lam, through his middleman Wally Sombero, attempted to bribe Aguirre, why didn’t the latter effect right then and there, a warrantless arrest of Sombero, the latter being in flagrante delicto, and thereafter promptly move to prevent Lam’s departure or escape from the country?" de Lima earlier asked.
"Simply put, there are too many nagging questions that necessitate a deeper independent probe by the Senate. We cannot just entrust such investigation to DOJ-NBI which are both under Aguirre’s control. It’s like entrusting a wolf to guard the sheep," she added.
The BI officials were reported to have received five paper bags allegedly containing P10 million each, or a total of P50 million, from Wally Sombero, at the City of Dreams hotel and casino in Parañaque City, which activity was caught on CCTV.
Based on news reports, Lam had successfully evaded government arrest by immediately leaving the Philippines after he reportedly bribed BI officials in the amount of P50 million.
Mindful that Aguirre and the two embattled BI officials belong to the President’s same fraternity, the San Beda-based Lex Talionis Fraternity, de Lima also regarded President Duterte's attitude toward them as "kid's glove treatment."
"(This) bribery scandal raises issues on the seriousness and/or capability of the government to enforce its anti-corruption laws in situations where those involved are personal friends of the appointing authority," she said.
Several fraternity brothers of the President have been appointed to high government positions since he assumed power, aside from Aguirre, BI Commissioners Michael Robles and Al Argosino.
"This is the first time that a corruption scandal involving the President’s fraternity brothers has been exposed to the public. Duterte has promised that all officials who get involved in corruption will be killed," de Lima said. (SunStar Philippines)