SENATE probers sitting in the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers (Blue Ribbon) are poised to line up a full agenda for investigating controversial transactions, as they met for the first time Wednesday and vowed to fulfill their key constitutional mandate to go after grafters.
Presiding over its organizational meeting, Blue Ribbon panel chairman Sen. Francis Tolentino affirmed their pledge to “accomplish the committee’s mandate, as well as to fulfill its powers in aid of legislation.”
He confirmed that the Blue Ribbon panel lined up two hearings on raging controversies, starting with the sugar importation mess, set for Tuesday (Aug. 23); and the alleged pricey laptops bought by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday (Aug. 25).
Tolentino aired an appeal “for the members of the committee to be forthright in coming up with a Blue Ribbon roadmap which would entail—for purposes of the hearing—a known duration, a defined direction and not evolve into a political circus, instead respect the rights of the witnesses and the resource persons, prevent abuses and pass the proper remedial legislation with the known standard of proof.”
Moreover, Tolentino gave assurances that “we will not be here to witch-hunt, or to have a fishing expedition, we will be here, in the succeeding hearings, to gather and uncover the truth. We will do what is right.”
Blue Ribbon members decided to first tackle the privilege speech of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on the sugar importation order tagged as unauthorized by Malacañang Palace, and “the pricey laptops” bought by the DBM for the Department of Education.
However, no dates yet were set for inquiries lined up: on the latest PPE procurements; the scholarship programs under the Unified Financial Assistance System (the scholarship program of CHED), and Land Transportation Office (LTO) transactions.
Tolentino also announced that the Blue Ribbon has tapped two ex-senior ombudsmen (Melchor Carandang; and former Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera) to help the committee inquiry.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Tolentino administered the oath of office of Mosquera, who will now stand as the committee’s general legal counsel.
Carandang will serve as senior legal consultant.
Tolentino said the appointment of counsels in the committee shows the “seriousness of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee of the 19th Congress in tackling the resolutions ahead.”
Meanwhile, also at the panel’s organizational meeting, Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III proposed a state-of-the-art maximum security prison.
“If a maximum security prison be built, then make it world-class in the sense that the security features in that prison should be modern,” Pimentel proposed, attending the meeting virtually, and suggested that “it should contain all components of a maximum security prison designed in the year 2022.”
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, who joined the meeting, agreed with Pimentel and noted a crammed maximum security area in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. According to Remulla, the Bilibid maximum security currently houses 17,000 inmates, way beyond the limit of 7,000.
Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa expressed full support for Tolentino as Blue Ribbon chief, saying he “fully agreed” with Tolentino’s avowal there will not be a “witch hunt” or “fishing expedition” in uncovering the truth.
For her part, Sen. Risa Hontiveros enjoined the Blue Ribbon to hold to account government officials found to have misused public funds.
Hontiveros renewed her appeal for the abolition of the PS-DBM over findings of allegedly overpriced laptops purchased by DepEd.
She also cited complaints reaching her office that beneficiaries of UniFAST have yet to receive their subsidies. “I think this drives home the point that every time public funds are used injudiciousl—whether on tuition fees, laptops, PPE (personal protective equipment), face shields —real lives are affected,” Hontiveros stressed.