WHITEWASH OF PAYOFF SCANDAL
FEARED WITH PAGC DOING THE PROBE

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) is the wrong agency to investigate the Malacañang payoff scandal as it would end up whitewashing the case where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the suspected principal culprit.

Pimentel said the alleged bribery of congressmen, governors and other local officials by the Palace in exchange for supporting the President in the face of new impeachment moves against her will suffer the fate of the fertilizer fund scam which the PAGC has investigated without yielding any tangible results.

He said PAGC Chairperson Constancia de Guzman cannot be expected to carry out a no-nonsense inquiry into the payoff scandal because that would put down the President.

"Nothing will come out of it. You cannot expect a subordinate to investigate his or her master whose hand in the matter under investigation might be proven to have been involved," Pimentel said.

Since the alleged distribution of cash, ranging from P200,000 to P500,000 took place in Malacañang, he said "the necessary implication is that the occupant of Malacañang, the boss of Malacañang, was involved in it."

Pimentel said the admission of Protestant Bishop, Bienvenido Abante, Congressman of the 6th district of Manila, that President Arroyo was present at the Malacañang Heroes Hall while the money was being distributed was incriminating to her.

"You might say that because of all these revelations, it is now more or less certain that she had a hand in it."