Well, I have no choice until now who will I vote for. We have many presidential contenders and for sure not Senators Manny Villar nor Ping Lacson will I vote.
But that is not what I am interested to write about. I was thinking of what happened some few years back when the then House Speaker Manny Villar and House Minority Leader Sonny Belmonte got embroiled with the payola on the privatization of National Power Corporation. I was astonished to hear Sen. Joker Arroyo to take the cudgel for Villar about the current budget insertions when it was a different thing 8 years ago:
''We might as well call that bill the corruption or racketeering bill because it's the biggest racket of them all,'' said Arroyo.
Here is the complete news story then April 17, 2000
THREE members of the House of Representatives yesterday revealed that legislators were bribed into passing the Omnibus Power Bill last week.
Sanlakas Rep. Renato Magtubo and Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales said they received P500,000 each although they voted against House Bill 8457, or the Electricity Industry Reform Bill, which seeks to sell the National Power Corp. after its P500-billion debt was transferred to the taxpayers.
Rep. Joker Arroyo of Makati City called the payoff the ''untold story'' in the passage of the bill.
''We might as well call that bill the corruption or racketeering bill because it's the biggest racket of them all,'' said Arroyo, who said he had nothing to return.
A congressman, who asked not to be named, estimated that members of the House had received a total of at least P120 million in exchange for the passage of HB 8457.
In a press conference she and Magtubo called, Rosales said: ''We are merely party-list legislators who voted against the measure. What more for those who voted yes?''
''I don't think Congressman Arnulfo Fuentebella got half a million pesos like us party-list legislators,'' Rosales said, referring to the chair of the House energy committee.
Rosales told the INQUIRER and Pinoy Times, the only papers which attended the press conference, that she had returned the money.
Magtubo, who had kept the P500,000 in cash as evidence, said the money was an institutional bribe for Congress which sold out in favor of private interests.
''It was not only a payoff for each individual lawmaker but a bribe for the whole Congress. It is a payoff for Congress for selling out the people's interests,'' Magtubo said.
But Speaker Manuel Villar yesterday said that he was not aware of what Magtubo was talking about.
''It is not my policy to pay congressmen for their support for any particular bill, much more, for their attendance of sessions,'' Villar said.
Still, he said he would ask the chamber to look into the matter.
For his part, Angelito Banayo, presidential assistant for political affairs, brushed aside speculations that the Palace was involved in the alleged payoff for the passage of the bill, which President Estrada had certified as urgent.
''All I know is that we were given assurances by Villar that he will be getting it through (before the Holy Week break),'' Banayo said.
Another Malacañang official, who asked not to be named, doubted whether the payola happened.
''Congressmen are aware of the importance of the bill. They will not settle for P500,000 when they can very well haggle for a multimillion-peso pork barrel-funded project,'' said the official.
The official said the money could be for the ''allowance and travel expense'' of congressmen so that they would have something to spend for their constituents during the long Holy Week break.
Source of money
Magtubo said he believed that the money came from parties interested in the sale of Napocor.
''We in Sanlakas see the importance of knowing where the money came from. We are sure it came from families and companies which have vested interests in the juicy sale of the Napocor,'' he said.
''With this exposé, we are giving the Senate enough reason to kill this bill,'' he said, adding that Congress deserved to be bombarded with protests.
Magtubo and Rosales said the money was handed to them after the House approved the bill on third and final reading by a vote of 146-30 with one abstention following 20 hours of debates.
The two expressed hope that other legislators who also received money would return it and testify.
''For three days, I waited for my other colleagues to come out and speak . . . I am still hopeful that many of my independent-minded colleagues will soon come out and do the same,'' Magtubo said.
Magtubo and Rosales said word about the money started to circulate a week before the House approved the bill.
Magtubo said he wanted to lay a trap but could not do it when the money was handed to him right in the House.
''We had planned an entrapment but because it happened inside Congress, it did not materialize,'' Magtubo said in Filipino.
Banayo said that if Rosales and Magtubo were wise, they should have set up an entrapment to make their charges stick.
Belmonte's office
Magtubo said the money was given to him around midnight of Tuesday after he was asked by Romblon Rep. Eleandro Madrona if he had gone to the Office of Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, the House minority leader.
Magtubo said he went to Belmonte's office and someone gave him an envelope containing 500 pieces of P1,000 bills.
Rosales, on the other hand, said the money was given to her Wednesday after the House voted on the measure.
She said she received the envelope in the office of Belmonte but returned it later after discovering that it contained money.
Rosales believed that the money came from the office of Speaker Villar.
''The money was coursed through the Speaker . . . The money came from the Office of the Speaker and was coursed through the minority (leader),'' Rosales said.
Rosales and Magtubo noted that Belmonte was not in his office when the money changed hands. They said Belmonte was in a hospital when the bill was being discussed.
Rosales said she was told that the money given her was for attending the session.
But she said the money was meant to keep her mouth shut.
''When I asked, they answered this is for attendance . . . That money was intended for us to keep quiet. All of us (in the opposition) voted no but we were still given the money,'' she said.
Newspaper owner
Arroyo said he had an idea who was behind the payoff.
''Not a single story on the power bill came out of the paper that person owns. Some stories were slanted but at least they got published,'' he noted. ''But the money did not come from him but from somebody else.''
Arroyo did not identify the newspaper owner.
Magtubo said he was not surprised to see full attendance during the April 11 and 12 sessions.
''This was also the payoff that enticed our 'diligent' lawmakers to stay overnight and untiringly deliberated on the bill until the following day. This P500,000 is the price for our 20-hour sacrifice,'' he said, noting that the House was unable to muster a quorum in its previous sessions.
Recalling last week's 20-hour marathon session on the power bill, another opposition congressman said: ''Like in a classroom, you can't help but feel the vibrations. House members were in full force. That didn't happen before, not even during budget deliberations.
''Quite a number stayed for 20 straight hours, which was unusual. Why stay beyond the call of duty? How in the world would a bill as dry as a power bill could make House members attend the session?'' he asked.
A House official who asked not to be named observed that ''even the perfumed ladies (referring to some female legislators) stayed late. That has never happened here at Batasan.''
Southern Leyte Rep. Aniceto Saludo said he was ''not aware, nor was I offered any kind of financial consideration to support the said bill.''
''Perhaps this is part of Congressman Magtubo's continuous efforts to destabilize the House as he has been doing so in the past,'' Saludo said.
Support for colleagues
But Quezon City Rep. Mike Defensor, like Arroyo, expressed full support for Rosales and Magtubo.
''I support them on their call and I give them my commitment,'' Defensor said.
Asked about the alleged payoff, the opposition legislator said that ''if that's the case, then there should be a review of the power bill.''
Like Rosales, Arroyo said power rates were not likely to go down despite the privatization of Napocor.
Both Arroyo and Rosales predicted the cost of electricity would go up since consumers would assume the burden of paying for the bulk of Napocor's loans.
The national government would also absorb a portion of Napocor's debts ''but it will be taxpayers like you and me who will pay for that,'' Arroyo said.
Opposition Rep. Oscar Moreno (Lakas, Misamis Oriental) described as ''unconscionable'' the practice of passing the power company's loans to consumers.
In Bacolod City, Sen. John Osmeña warned he would not allow the Senate version of the Omnibus Power Bill to pass unless a tax imposed on geothermal power in the Visayas was removed.
''That is unfair, it is a tax paid only by Visayans,'' said Osmeña, chair of the Senate energy committee.
The Visayas has two geothermal power plants--one in Palinpinon, Negros Oriental, and another in Tongonan, Leyte.
At present, the government imposes a 60-centavo per kilowatt hour tax on these geothermal power plants, according to Osmeña. With reports from Armand N. Nocum in Manila and Carla P. Gomez and Nereo C. Lujan, PDI Visayas Bureau
