Unfinished business of the 2019 SEA Games

Former House speaker and now leading senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano should explain to voters how he spent the funds for the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games).

The SEA Games were held on Nov. 30-Dec. 11, 2019.

Cayetano has yet to liquidate the funds spent by the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc), which he headed. Phisgoc is a private foundation.

Although the charter of the SEA Games allows the hosting nation to assign a special committee to organize the event, why was it given to a private foundation, instead of a government committee?

The Philippine government created its own version of an organizing committee for the 2005 SEA Games.

Congress allocated P5 billion for the 2019 SEA Games. Additional funds amounting to P1 billion was given by Malacañang to Phisgoc.

Another estimated P1.5 billion was collected by the Phisgoc private foundation from sponsors.

All told, Cayetano had at his disposal P7.5 billion for the SEA Games.

At the risk of sounding redundant, leading senatorial candidate Cayetano should report to the people how he spent – or misspent – the funds for the 2019 SEA Games.

Isn’t that only fair to the Filipino people?

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The holding of the SEA Games was finished three years ago, and the funds should have been liquidated by now.

But where’s the special audit that the Senate asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to submit?

Sen. Franklin Drilon initiated the request.

It was also Drilon who first questioned why the P7.5-billion allocation for the hosting of the SEA Games was placed under the 2019 proposed budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Cayetano was then foreign affairs secretary when the SEA Games allocations were placed in the DFA budget.

“If such a huge amount of funds can be misallocated in an agency which has nothing to do, where the activity has nothing to do with its mandate, I hope that does not prompt us to comb every item. So, our question is: how did this happen?” Drilon asked.

When Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin took over from Cayetano, who ran for congressman, he said he didn’t want to hold the P7.5-billion funds in his department.

The P7.5-billion budget for the SEA Games was placed under the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), but the Cayetano-led Phisgoc eventually got the power to decide where the money would go.

By then, Cayetano was already Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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This columnist’s questioning the disbursement of the SEA Games fund has earned me libel suits filed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara with Taguig Regional Trial Court.

Suzara was Cayetano’s right-hand man at Phisgoc.

It’s no wonder then that I and Monico Puentevella, former Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) chairman who also questioned how the money was spent, were given a hard time in posting our bail.

I was charged with six counts of libel, while Puentevella got three.

Posting our bail on different dates took us nine hours each.

There were so many requirements for our temporary liberty, the first time that this columnist never encountered in my other libel cases.

But then I remember, Taguig is Cayetano’s home ground.

As the saying goes, “You can’t fight City Hall.”

The saying was started among American journalists and writers in the 1920’s, who were exasperated with the way their government was being run then.

Oh, well, but somebody has to throw out the garbage and, in my case and Puentevella’s, the job fell on our laps.

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The letter that you will read below touched me deeply.

It means my fight for rectitude in government service has the support of the public, in general, and my readers, in particular.

I would like to thank the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Association (CREBA) for writing me that letter.

The letter reads in toto:

Dear Mr. Tulfo:

I read your March 31 column at the Philippine STAR and I am sorry to hear that you have been the subject of a warrant of arrest for libel after exposing anomalies related to the 2019 SEA Games hosted by the Philippine government through PHISGOC Organizing Committee.

Enclosed is a check donation for One Hundred Thousand Pesos (P100,000). It may not be much considering the enormous expenses you might face to defend yourself in the case, but I am certain that it will be money best spent in our shared quest to stand up against the ‘buwayas’ (crocodiles) in government.

Thank you for journalists like you who face the hazards of the profession everyday. You are one of the few with real ‘balls’ to fight the powers that be notwithstanding your known close ties with the President.

While I am national chairman of CREBA, an organization of real estate and housing stakeholders that has been championing against red tape, bureaucracy and corrupt practices in government, please accept this humble amount as my personal contribution to your possibly long legal battle ahead.

Thank you and God bless you and your endeavors!

Very truly yours,

Charlie A. V. Gorayeb

National Chairman

Mr. Gorayeb or Charlie, you don’t know how touched I am by your letter of moral support.

Your letter comes at a time when I ponder whether all the troubles and hazards I go through as a crusading journalist are worth it.

But with people like you behind me in my fight for rectitude in government and society, yes, it’s all worth it!

And thank you very much for the P100,000 donation. Although not expected, that amount will go a long way in my legal defense.

I was pleasantly surprised at such a gesture of extreme generosity since this is my first time to receive money for my legal expenses.