SOME P440 million purportedly extorted from a suspected Chinese crime lord was being distributed to congressmen in tranches to make sure there is a quorum during the marathon plenary debate on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), lawmakers said Tuesday.
The money flooding the House is aimed at the swift passage of the Palace-drafted BBL, which will create a new Bangsamoro region under a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), House insiders said.
“The BBL payola is being raised by the President’s men, mostly from the ruling Liberal Party. They call it lobby fund,” said a lawmaker who is a member of the Liberal Party and is privy to some of the LP’s lobbying on behalf of the BBL.
“The Speaker may not know some of the actions in his own backyard because it is the Liberals that are operating inside and outside the House,” the LP lawmaker said.
He named some of the “BBL fund raisers” but asked that they not be disclosed pending a decision from the House leadership on whether or not to launch a congressional investigation.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has yet to respond to the demand from opposition lawmakers to conduct a probe on the alleged involvement of administration officials in cutting a deal with Wang.
The independent minority bloc led by Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez has filed a House resolution calling for an investigation.
1BAP Rep. Silvestre Bello III, ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio and Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus have made similar calls.
“The Palace, which imposed and insisted on the June 11 deadline, is very concerned that the deadline will not be met due to a lack of quorum,” said the lawmaker, who requested anonymity.
“There was a huge budget to ensure the swift passage of the BBL. While we were not told about the source of the budget, we knew it is from Malacanang. If the source includes the BBL payola from the supposed crime lord, Malacanang had found a way of renaming it as travel, attendance and operations allowances,” the source said.
The source was referring to the $10 million [P440 million at P44 to a dollar] that officials from the Bureau of Immigration allegedly raised for the BBL by cutting a deal with Wang, who was granted a release order on May 21.
His release was stopped, however, when the Chinese Embassy in Manila protested. An earlier deportation order was then reinstated.
Top Immigration officials are accusing each other of cutting a deal with Wang, with Commissioner Siegfred Mison pointing out that it was his two deputy commissioners who voted for his release.
The House insider said the allowances from the BBL lobbying team would give lawmakers no excuse for not attending the plenary debates because even their plane fares would be covered.
On Monday, some 193 House members—enough for a quorum–showed up but the number dwindled to 40 in the early evening, prompting Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza to question the quorum.
The sessions were suspended until 4 p.m. Tuesday. Quorum bells were busy pealing on Tuesday to summon the lawmakers to attend the sessions.
Sponsorship speeches that were cut short Monday resumed Tuesday afternoon after sessions resumed.
Belmonte said no money was offered to pass the BBL and said he would resign if it were proved otherwise.
House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, an LP stalwart, said there was no telling if the Palace had the numbers to ensure the passage of the BBL.
“We cannot compel the other members from the majority coalition such as the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Nacionalista Party and the National Unity Party because even the Liberal Party is not that solid on the BBL,” Gonzales said.
The Visayan bloc, with 42 members led by Bacolod City Rep. Albee Benitez, vowed to vote as a group, regardless of their political affiliations.
Benitez said if the majority decides to vote against the BBL, then all of them would vote that way. The same would hold true if the majority favored the passage of the bill, he said.
Gonzales said House leaders were considering dropping one of the most controversial provisions of the bill—the opt-in provision—to improve the chances for the bill’s passage.
The opt-in provision allows provinces adjacent to the proposed Bangsamoro autonomous region to petition to join it after it has been formed.
The opt-in provision was among eight provisions that Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the ad hoc committee on the BBL, vowed to remove, but then kept intact after a 12-hour meeting with President Benigno Aquino III in Malacanang.
“For 12 hours, from 1:30 p.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Sunday of May 17, the President only went out three times to smoke. He was really deep into the discussion and defended every provision that he wanted restored,” the source said.
From May 18-20 during the voting on line-by-line amendments, six of the eight provisions from the original Palace bill were restored.
The BBL was approved at the committee level 50-17, with one abstention, on May 20. – With Vito Barcelo
In subsequent weeks, the BBL also passed unanimously in the House committees on ways and means and appropriations, chaired by Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo and Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, respectively, both officials of the Liberal Party.
On Tuesday, Mison said he was ready to face any investigation on the Wang case, and branded as ridiculous and untrue allegations that they extorted $10 million that was later used to bribe lawmakers to pass the BBL.
Deputy Commissioners Abdullah Mangotara and Gilbert Repizo also said they welcomed an investigation into the case so that they could clear their names.
But Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali, in defending his Liberal Party mates Mangotara and Repizo, accused Mison of cutting the deal with Wang, and said he blamed Mangotara and Repizo only after his deal was exposed. – With Vito Barcelo
