SEN. Richard Gordon guided first-term Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao Wednesday on established procedures being adhered to in conducting Senate inquiries into alleged anomalies, including reports on alleged graft and corruption cases implicating officials under the Duterte administration.
“Investigation of corruption cases must proceed but my committee cannot investigate based merely on newspaper accounts,” said Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon panel, also known as the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations.
Gordon affirmed that “I have neither received any request, nor has any resolution been filed regarding Senator Manny Pacquiao’s allegations.”
However, Gordon adds that while “no documents have been shared with us, nevertheless, I will not shirk from my duty and responsibilities as Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman.”
In a news statement issued on Wednesday, Gordon affirmed that allegations hurled by Pacquiao against several executive departments, “like any other allegation made by any other colleague, must be taken seriously.”
But the Senate chief prober reminded that “before we can even think of proceeding, the Blue Ribbon must know what it will be specifically investigating. It cannot go willy-nilly into any battlefield without knowledge of the what, the who, the how, the when, and the damage it caused the government. Unfortunately, we have yet to see the specificity of the allegations.”
Gordon added that while the Blue Ribbon Committee, specifically tasked to investigate public accountability issues, “may call for a hearing motu proprio, I need to see the specific facts surrounding the alleged offenses committed. In legal parlance, I need a bill of particulars to be fair to all concerned.”
The Senate chief prober reminded that “the tremendous powers of the Blue Ribbon Committee cannot be exercised in a cavalier fashion that could only lead to abuse,” stressing that “we are not in the business of chasing ghosts. We are in the business of doing what is right.”
In the meantime, Gordon confirmed he already “instructed the Blue Ribbon staff, as well as my own office staff, to get in touch with the authorities to find out whether there is “smoke and fire that is right behind it.”
The senator-prober assured that “if there is basis, I will not hesitate to act and do what is right.”