De Venecia: FG, Razon financed my ouster

MANILA, Philippines – After struggling to keep his leadership in the House of Representatives, Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. kept his guns trained on President Arroyo’s family, particularly the First Gentleman whom he accused of moving funds – together with a controversial businessman – to ensure his ouster.

De Venecia made the accusation over radio dzMM and reiterated the same accusations to House reporters later yesterday.

He said “top level sources” in the administration informed him that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and businessman Enrique Razon Jr. mobilized funds for his ouster, with selected congressmen getting P1 million to P2 million each “plus pork barrel releases” in exchange for his or her vote for Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles.

The House voted late Monday to declare the post of Speaker vacant, which led to Nograles’ taking over from De Venecia. Razon is chief executive officer of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. or ICTSI.

“I hope this is not true. They have been warned by Bishop Abante. I hope that this new financial scandal does not explode,” he said.

He was referring to Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., a De Venecia loyalist who stood by him in the crucial moment that he needed support.

Abante, a Baptist bishop, earlier claimed that “cash of up to P1 million changed hands in the Nograles camp.”

He said the financier was a businessman close to Malacañang who was involved in a recent controversy.

Sources told The STAR that some congressmen received P500,000 yesterday afternoon, the balance of the amount promised them for voting for Nograles.

Reacting to De Venecia’s accusations, presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo said his former House boss and godfather was just “sour-graping.”

“Let him repeat those accusations outside the halls of Congress and shed his parliamentary immunity so we can take him to court,” he said.

For his part, Nograles said it’s not true that his camp paid supporters millions.

“Sorry, that’s not true. We do not have the same resources that he has. And I do not campaign in that manner even in my local politics,” he said in a text message.

Asked why the President’s husband and Razon would fund his ouster, De Venecia said the two wanted to get back at him since his son and namesake linked them to the anomalous $329-million national broadband network contract with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. last April.

On Monday night, in his hour-long emotional privilege speech in which he denounced corruption and arrogance in the Arroyo government, the former speaker said Razon was “a partner in the corridors of power in Malacañang.”

He also criticized the awarding to a consortium identified with Razon of the multi-million peso contract to run the transmission facilities of the National Transmission Corp.

De Venecia also talked of alleged attempts to tamper with the results of the May 2004 presidential election, in which Mrs. Arroyo was declared winner against popular actor Fernando Poe Jr.

Asked yesterday to reveal details of such attempts, he said the “tampering was done at the provincial level.”

“I will look at my notes and papers so I can give you more specifics,” he said. The opposition had consistently claimed the President cheated Poe, an allegation that Mrs. Arroyo has denied.

De Venecia promised to cooperate with the Commission on Elections or with any appropriate body if it decides to investigate the alleged massive cheating in 2004.

“We have to put closure to this Garci controversy,” he said, referring to former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who is widely believed to be the man talking to Mrs. Arroyo – in a wiretapped conversation – about a plot to manipulate the election results.

The morning after he was ousted, the former speaker received a steady stream of friends, including former Bataan congressman Felicito Payumo, and constituents from Pangasinan.    

“I feel liberated. I can now be fully independent from Malacañang,” he said.

He said he would not accept any post from the Nograles camp.

Asked to comment on reports that his Lakas partymates who voted for Nograles would work to oust him as party president, De Venecia said he intends to stay as Lakas head.

“I will have to tackle these things one at a time,” he said.

His wife Gina said her husband’s ouster was the result of the “revenge of the Arroyos.”

“They installed Boy Nograles so they can make the House their rubber stamp,” she said in a radio interview.

“Boy Nograles is a classmate of the First Gentleman and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno,” she said. Puno also chairs the pro-administration Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi).

She also accused Mikey Arroyo, her godson, of allegedly forcing House members to support Nograles or lose their pork barrel allocations.

Interviewed in the same program, the President’s son denied his godmother’s accusation.

He claimed that he and his brother Diosdado or Dato, a Camarines Sur congressman, did not play a major role in De Venecia’s ouster despite reports that they, together with Nograles, were the principal coup plotters.

“We just support the clamor of the majority for change,” he said. 

A statesman, almost

For Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, De Venecia would have emerged a greater statesman had he just accepted defeat and restrained from delivering a scathing speech against the Arroyo administration.

“It was clearly a speech which indicated that he has crossed his Rubicon already. He has crossed his bridges. The only problem is Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and won. I don’t know for the Speaker,” Gonzalez said.

The DOJ chief was referring to a pivotal event in Roman history when then general Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his armed followers in 49 BC, sparking a civil war and paving the way for the establishment of the Roman Empire.

Gonzalez said even his congressman son and namesake had wanted to keep De Venecia as Speaker but was turned off by his speech.

“My son wanted to vote for the status quo but what turned him off was the speech. If he had not delivered that kind of a speech probably my son would have either voted no or abstained,” Gonzalez said.

“I am sure if the Speaker accepted the situation very graciously, he might have been a bigger statesman,” he added.

Gonzalez also downplayed De Venecia’s speech, saying it contained old accusations made by other people. Malacañang, he said, was not bothered by De Venecia’s speech.

“I don’t think that there is much to worry. Most of the things which had been delivered last night had been delivered by other people already. It is up to the people now to consider whether that speech is still valuable at this point, considering the timing,” Gonzalez said. 

Prominent Catholic bishops have mixed feelings about De Venecia’s ouster and Nograles’ taking over his post.

Caloocan Bishop Deogracia Iniguez Jr. and Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos said they’d rather take a wait-and-see stand even if it was widely believed that it was the damning testimony of De Venecia’s son and namesake regarding the botched NBN project that triggered the ouster move.

“If we are to base this development on the feud before it happened, then it can be said that such change in leadership was not good as it showed the downside of politics in our country,” Iniguez said over Church-run Radyo Veritas.

Iniguez, chair of public affairs committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, clarified that the country after all may derive benefits from the change in House leadership.

“It is said that God writes only in a straight line. But I am praying these sudden turns in our way will still lead us to the right, straight path toward real progress in our country,” he explained.

“We can’t have a black and white reaction, so it’s best to have a wait and see attitude,” Pueblos said for his part.

Realignment

The ouster of De Venecia caused political ripples in Pampanga where six mayors signified their intention yesterday to bolt Lakas within the week and move to Kampi, Mrs. Arroyo’s political party.

Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo told The STAR in a telephone interview that the six Lakas-CMD mayors were disappointed with De Venecia’s leadership and felt happy about his ouster. “We don’t believe in a leader who does not believe in the administration of President Arroyo,” Pelayo said.

Bulacan mayors, meanwhile, see no major political realignment in the province even as the province’s lawmakers who voted for Nograles denied accusations that they had been paid for their votes.

“We’d rather wait and see,” Norzagaray Mayor Feliciano Legazpi said. Mayor Donato Marcos of Paombong said the House leadership change is unlikely to have serious repercussions for the province.

Lakas Rep. Reylina Nicolas (Lakas) denied that money changed hands at the height of the leadership war. She also ruled out a major political realignment saying Nograles, like De Venecia, is a Lakas stalwart.

Lakas Rep. Lorna Silverio chose to abstain, saying De Venecia and Mrs. Arroyo are her friends.

Rep. Joel Villanueva of party-list Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption, who is also from Bulacan, abstained. - With Edu Punay, Dino Balabo and Mike Frialde