Of pork and favored contractors

The House of Representatives officially adopted a resolution asking President Duterte to fire Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, because of the controversy surrounding the "inserted" funds in the budget of the DPWH, particularly billions of pesos for Sorsogon, which he claims he did not know, the DPWH claims they did not know, and Duterte himself did not know. It is worth mentioning Diokno’s daughter is married to the son of the incumbent vice governor of Sorsogon, who plans to run for mayor of Sorsogon City coming elections. House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya finds it hard to believe that Diokno did not know about the budget insertions.

Who would not raise an eyebrow in this situation? Here we go again, a cabinet member seems to be favoring a relative, or in this case an in-law. This is much like the situation of the security agency owned by the family of Solicitor General Calida, which have multiple million-peso contracts with different government agencies. The investigation into these contracts was sidelined by the issue raised by the Palace against Senator Trillanes. How can Diokno not know what goes on in his office, being the secretary? It seems nobody knows who inserted the P75 billion in the DPWH budget, earmarked for the province of Sorsogon. Will another issue be raised to divert attention from this controversy?

The suspected “pork” or “insertions” was first revealed by Senator Ping Lacson, specifically the budget insertions for supposed projects of House Speaker Arroyo and Andaya. With “pork” deemed unconstitutional and therefore illegal, lawmakers seem to have found a loophole in the law which allowed them to once again have millions for their districts. But Andaya diverted the attention to the Palace, specifically Diokno and the budget insertions for Sorsogon. Lacson is just happy that more instances of toying with the budget have come up. A virtual can of worms has been opened.

The old saying is true. That when you point your finger at someone, there are more fingers pointing back at you. This seems to be happening between Congress and the Palace on the issue of insertions in the budget of certain lawmakers for their respective regions. It's Christmas, so perhaps the administration allies are having a good one? And we have not even touched on the so-called favored contractor of the Palace, which has won billions of projects nationwide from a sole proprietorship in Bulacan. A sole proprietorship cornering billion-peso projects?

Andaya has identified the contractor as CT Leoncio Construction and Trading, owned by Consolacion T. Leoncio. This sole proprietor was awarded 30 government contracts for projects all over the country in 2018. That’s a feat in itself, causing the House to issue a subpoena for Consolacion T. Leoncio, to shed some light, if not expose, what’s going on. The drama between the House and the Palace is far from over. I myself am interested to hear what the owner would say. Is it a bombshell, a smoking gun, or just another whimper?