DAVAO CITY—Vice Mayor Paolo Dutere and his brother-in-law Manases Carpio vowed to attend the Sept. 7 Senate hearing, after they were invited by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to answer allegations on their involvement in the so called “Davao Group.”
In a press release, President Rodrigo Duterte’s eldest son and son-in-law, the latter the husband of the Davao City mayor Sarah, said they recognized the power of the Senate to investigate such issues that concern the general public.
“We duly recognize the coercive power of the Senate as part of the legislative branch of the government and their [sic] authority to conduct inquiry,” they said in their statement, adding “We commit to respect the invitation and attend the hearing.”
Committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon said the hearing on Thursday would also discuss the “tara system” at the Bureau of Customs following the exposé by Senator Panfilo Lacson.
“We will call the two because whatever you do, whatever I do, we’re saying it’s hearsay, we’re saying, they’re the children of the President, they’re the relatives of the President, there’s a need to call them,” stressed Gordon.
“We will invite them so that it gets done as soon as possible because I’m leaving, I have meetings abroad. We’ll invite them on September 7. Hopefully, we won’t lose face,” he said.
In a related development, Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña gave all customs officials a clean slate from any corruption accusations, and gave back to his deputy commissioners the authority to issue alert orders on questionable imported shipments.
“This is my way of showing my full trust and confidence to (sic) the officers and men of the bureau,” Lapeña said, whose bureau has been considered by many as the most graft ridden government agency.
“I am giving a clean slate for everybody,” said the Customs chief as he bared some of his plans to address corruption and increase Bureau’s revenue.
He reiterated the call to stop the culture of “pasalubong” and “tara” and to strictly implement the “no gift and no take policy,” adding these illegal practices were bringing the name of the agency down the drain.
To institute accountability and boost internal cleansing within the agency, Lapeña plans to implement a one-strike policy against erring bureau officials and employees through intensified counter-intelligence efforts.
“Once I receive reports of your involvement with corrupt practices and such reports are validated, you will see immediate action based on the offense committed,” Lapeña said as he warns employees and officials.
He also urged the public to arrest, by virtue of citizen’s arrest, anyone who would use his name to facilitate unlawful activities in the agency, adding he will be observing zero tolerance for corruption.
The Commissioner also emphasized the need for an improved incentive and reward system for all personnel who remain persistent in performing their duties and responsibilities with commitment, competence, and integrity.
Another priority of Lapeña is to improve the revenue performance of the agency.
To achieve this, the Customs chief said BoC personnel must perform jobs properly and strictly implement the customs laws, rules and regulations to improve the bureau’s revenue efficiency.
The BoC chief calls on bureau officials and personnel to help him institute reforms that would regain the public’s trust.
“I am not here to pass judgment. I do not care about the past, I do not mind the various issues thrown to the bureau and the reports that I received, but I am here to institute changes, changes that would help regain public trust and confidence to the bureau.”
“Help me reform the bureau, help me in my mission to liberate the bureau from the clutches of corruption and hit its collection target as ordered by the President,” Lapeña said.
In Davao City on Saturday night, President Rodrigo Duterte said he told Paolo to attend the Senate hearing, but advised him to keep silent when he would be grilled by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
“You go there. And when you arrive there and he starts questioning you, just say ‘I will not answer you, I’m invoking my right of silence because as early as the campaign period when my father was not yet President, you were already criticizing us’” the President said in a mix of Filipino and English.
Meanwhile, Gordon also belied the remarks of Trillanes in last Thursday’s hearing that he was preventing the appearance of Paolo and Carpio to the Senate inquiry into the corruption at the BoC allegedly involving the two members of the Presidential family.
“I agreed… There’s no truth to what he [Trillanes] has been saying that we are blocking… that Senator [Vicente] Sotto was blocking. He got mad when Senator Sotto said it’s hearsay. We agreed because we have to hold them to a higher rating,” said Gordon.
Gordon, an ally of the President, had earlier rejected Trillanes’ motion to summon Paolo and Carpio after their names were mentioned by Customs broker and fixer Mark Taguba as Davao Group members who facilitated shipments in the Bureau of Customs in exchange for bribes.
In dismissing Trillanes’ motion, Gordon insisted the allegations made by Taguba during the hearing were merely based on hearsay.
A day after he implicated the members of the presidential family, Taguba apologized to President Duterte, among others, and said his testimony was merely based on hearsay.
“I also hereby apologize to Vice Mayor Duterte, Atty. Carpio and to the first family for the proliferation of fake news arising out of my testimony at the Senate yesterday,” Taguba said.
Trillanes said Gordon finally acceded to his motion due to public pressure.
“Senator Gordon just felt the public pressure. He gave in after all. Anyway, regardless whether they would cooperate or not, I will be prepared to confront them on Thursday,” assured the opposition senator, a strong critic of the President.
Last Thursday, Gordon and Trillanes engaged in a word war over the motion to invite Paolo and Carpio.
Throwing his motion, Trillanes called the Blue Ribbon committee as “comite de abswelto” and lambasted Gordon and Sotto for lawyering for Duterte and Carpio.
After emerging from the more than three-hour Senate Majority caucus, Gordon on Monday said he had the support of 14 senators to the ethics complaint he would file against Trillanes IV.
Sought for confirmation regarding the numbers mentioned by Gordon, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto said, “he (Gordon) was the one who said that, just quote him.”
“It was executive session, we talked about it. I would probably say what he said was sort of accurate,” said Sotto.
Gordon also said Trillanes had maligned him with rules going out of the window.
“He didn’t respect the regulations. He didn’t respect our being gentlemen,” said Gordon who engaged Trillanes in a “word war” during the Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the P6.4-billion drug shipment that was facilitated through the BoC.
Gordon noted the acts and language of Trillanes could no longer be ignored.
“He just keeps on doing the same thing. A man like that does not belong in a Senate of august men and gentlemen. You do not do that to a chairman, you do not do that to your fellow senators and say they are a bunch of puppets or that they cannot do anything. The Senate is already a damaged institution… you be the judge, I would no longer be the judge,” said Gordon.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said the ethics complaint would go through the normal process just like any complaint. He added there was no attempt to dissuade Gordon from filing the case.
Asked if he found it unfortunate that an ethics complaint would be filed, Pimentel cited the need to resolve the issue due to the bad incident.
For his part, Trillanes branded as “just an ego problem” the complaint which Gordon threatened to file against him before the Senate ethics committee
“Being offended is different from using offensive language. For example, if I say I get offended by the tone of voice of Senator Gordon, is that basis of an ethics complaint or is it my problem, really? So if he gets offended by my statement, then it’s just an ego problem,” Trillanes said. With Macon Ramos-Araneta, John Paolo Bencito, and Vito Marcelo
