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Friday, March 29, 2024

Andaya turns the heat on Diokno in-laws

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Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. on Sunday threatened to file a criminal case against Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and several others for giving undue advantage to Aremar Construction belonging to the family of his in-laws.

Andaya, head of the House committee on appropriations, said Diokno could face a criminal complaint instead of just contempt charge.

“That would concern the construction company of his child,” Andaya told dzBB radio.

“First of all, [there is a] conflict of interest. That is the case. Once a child of a [government official] benefited [from a government project], that is against [the law].”

Andaya said the committee on appropriations will turn over its investigation to the committee on public account led by Quezon Rep. Danilo

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Suarez, which will file the complaint against Diokno and others before a prosecutor’s office or before the Office of the Ombudsman.

“We are preparing [the documents]. These are already being retrieved from me. I will be transferring the documents to him [Suarez],” Andaya said.

He said Diokno allocated funds in the national budget to the Casiguran, Sorsogon projects bagged by Aremar Construction, which entered a joint venture with CT Leoncio Construction and Trading.

“In the next hearing, he [Diokno] would not attend again. He would just let us wait until the session ends. This is why we are no longer interested [in waiting for him],” Andaya said.

Earlier, Andaya said his panel could possibly file plunder and tax-evasion complaints against the owners of Aremar Construction.

The committee on appropriations then took custody of over P50 million worth of alleged deposit slips to the firm by big-time or triple A construction companies as dummies.

Andaya said Suarez’s panel would continue hearing the P75-billion insertion of Diokno, and that even Diokno’s chief of staff, Budget Undersecretary Amenah Pangandaman and engineer Glenn Degal, a technical expert assigned at the programming division of the Department of Public Works and Highways-Planning Service, would be summoned. 

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