CA to reject Teves appointment

MANILA, Philippines – There is an emerging consensus in the powerful Commission on Appointments to reject the appointment of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, a member of the House contingent in the CA said yesterday.

“It’s almost sure that Secretary Teves will be rejected, unless a miracle happens,” Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list group Citizens Battle Against Corruption told The STAR.

Villanueva, the lone minority representative in the 12-member House CA contingent, said President Arroyo’s allies in the commission are leading the attack on Teves.

He said Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Richard Gordon have subjected the beleaguered finance secretary to long and intense grilling, even subjecting him to indignities and ridicule.

“They wanted to find out who are the prominent personalities involved in oil and car smuggling in Subic and other parts of the country. Secretary Teves could not provide them the answers. I could sympathize with him, because those involved are prominent personalities related or close to the tenants of Malacañang,” he said.

He added that as a member of the opposition bloc in the House and an anti-corruption crusader, he, too, wanted the finance secretary to identify the smugglers and their protectors.

Villanueva noted that another administration ally, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, has criticized Teves for the recent privatization of the Philippine National Oil Co. Energy Development Corp.

The sale has brought in more than P50 billion for the treasury.

Villanueva revealed that in the last CA meeting, Gordon asked him to move for the rejection of Teves.

“I could not do it because I also want to ask him questions about smuggling and his father’s accusation that some CA members in the previous Congress had demanded P5 million and numerous favors from him in exchange for his confirmation,” he said.

“Besides, I believe he is an honest man. Unfortunately for him, there seems to be no place for honest people in the Arroyo administration,” he said.

He said in addition to pro-administration senators, most members of the House CA panel are against Teves’ confirmation.

“I know that Speaker Prospero Nograles, when he was our panel chairman, wanted Secretary Teves rejected. It would not be surprising that he shared his sentiments with many members of the panel,” he added.

Before the 14th Congress convened in July, Teves’ father, then Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio Teves had accused some members of the House CA panel of allegedly demanding P5 million from his son and other Cabinet officials in exchange for their confirmation.

The elder Teves said the demand was relayed to him by his colleagues in the previous Congress.

The finance chief, for his part, said what he personally received from the same group of congressmen were “requests in kind – specifically appointments for their relatives and friends in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs.”

Former Surigao del Sur congressman Prospero Pichay Jr., who was House CA contingent chairman in the 13th Congress, denied they extorted money from Cabinet officials, though he admitted that they discussed their and other congressmen’s “concerns” with Teves.

Supporting the Teveses’ accusations, former agriculture secretary Domingo Panganiban revealed that eight members of the Pichay panel demanded from him P10 million each in projects for a total of P80 million.

He said his refusal to give in to their demand cost him his job. He was transferred to the National Anti-Poverty Commission. His successor, Arthur Yap, handily won confirmation in just a few months.

In contrast, Teves has been awaiting confirmation for more than two years now.

In the wake of the scandal surrounding the aborted $329-million national broadband network (NBN) contract awarded to Chinese firm ZTE Corp. last April, various groups opposed to President Arroyo have urged Teves and other “decent” Cabinet men to quit their jobs.