LAWMAKERS said Friday the House of Representatives must continue its investigation into allegations that some congressmen received bribes to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and brushed aside a proposal to have the Senate take over, saying this would be a waste of time.
Their remarks came as Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, filed a resolution calling for his panel to investigate allegations that suspected Chinese crime lord Wang Bo paid Immigration officials in exchange for ordering his release.
Guingona also noted in his resolution they want to establish if bribe money was used to gain the approval for the BBL during plenary debates in the House of Representatives.
“It is imperative for the Congress…to ensure that the legislative process for the passage of the BBL, or any other bill for that matter, should not be tainted with issues of bribery,” Guingona said, reversing his earlier statement that he doubted the veracity of the allegations.
In separate interviews, Reps. Jonathan de la Cruz of Abakada party-list, Albee Benitez of Negros Occidental, Jerry Trenas of Iloilo and Jorge Banal of Quezon all rejected the proposal of Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograls that the probe be handled by the Senate, since congressmen should not be investigating themselves.
De la Cruz said a Senate investigation would “only complicate things.”
“We have the means and the standing to inquire into this reported bribery case,” De la Cruz said.
The House, as an institution, must be able to clear its name at all costs, he said.
“We can and should be able to clear the air and cleanse ourselves,” De la Cruz added.
Benitez, chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development, said the House probe would give the chamber the opportunity to clear its name.
Trenas said the Senate could conduct a parallel probe, however.
“While the House is investigating, nothing will stop the Senate from investigating it,” Trenas, vice chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability, said in a text message.
Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, vice chairman for political affairs of the ruling Liberal Party, echoed Trenas’ view that the Senate could conduct its own probe.
Banal, a deputy majority leader, said a Senate probe would only be a waste of time.
Earlier, Nograles said the Senate would be a more impartial body to investigate allegations of bribery against the congressmen.
The move, he added, would also remove suspicions of a whitewash and “media bullying.”
Senator JV Ejercito, on the other hand, said the Justice Department and the National Bureau of Investigation were the agencies which should investigate the allegations that money accepted by Immigration officials from a suspected Chinese crime lord went to bribe lawmakers into swiftly passing the BBL.
Another member of the ruling Liberal Party, Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, said there was not evidence accompany the reported bribery.
Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., chairman of the committee studying the BBL in the Senate, slammed the version passed by the House at the committee level, saying its approval was clearly railroaded.
In a statement Friday, Marcos called on local government officials to be involved in the BBL discussions, saying it would affect not only Mindanao but the entire country.