Will real Joker please stand up?

Calling a Spade…
By Solita Collas-Monsod
BusinessWorld, Feb. 4, 2010

On Aug. 17, 1998, then Rep. Joker Arroyo stood up in the halls of Congress to deliver a privilege speech accusing newly elected House Speaker Manny Villar of the following:

A. Villar violated Article XI, Sec. 16 of the Constitution: “No loan, guaranty, or other form of financial accommodation for any business purpose may be granted, directly or indirectly, by any government-owned or -controlled bank or financial institution to the President..members of the…Congress…or to any firm or entity in which they have controlling interest, during their tenure.” — because :

1. Villar’s real estate companies (Arroyo mentioned “Palmera, Camella, and its principal subsidiaries the Household Development Corporation and Palmera and Communities Philippines”) were given financial accommodations by PAGIBIG, National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., among others, during Villar’s term as representative from 1992 to 1998 to finance their business purposes.

2. Villar’s bank, Capitol Bank, which he controls and in which his wife is the chief executive officer, “received loans, financial accommodations and guarantees from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas,” also between 1992 and the present (1998).

3. Manuela Corp., a housing and realty corporation owned by the family of the wife of Speaker Villar, was granted a loan of P1 billion by the SSS, with another P2-billion loan syndicated with GSIS (for a total exposure by these two institutions to Manuela of P3 billion) — an indirect financial accommodation. Joker Arroyo pointed out two things: a) “SSS, historically and as a matter of public policy does not extend direct loans to any company. It extends loans to banks or to public or private financial institutions, but not directly to business enterprises. The direct loan to Manuela Corp. is a first in SSS history”; and b) part of the P3-billion loan that Manuela received was earmarked to liquidate a loan it got from Capitol Bank (thus, another indirect financial accommodation).

B. Villar violated RA6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials), Sec. 9: “Divestment — A public official or employee should avoid conflicts of interest at all times. When a conflict of interest arises, he shall resign from his position in any private business enterprise within thirty (30) days from his assumption of office and/or divest himself of his shareholdings or interest within sixty(days) from such assumption” — because:

1. “Speaker Villar, from 1992 to 1998, did not divest himself of his interests in, nor did he sever his connections with, the companies aforestated.”

2. Nor had Speaker Villar, up until the time Arroyo gave his privilege speech, divested himself of those interests, etc., which, Arroyo pointed out, was a continuing violation.

Joker Arroyo summed up the above charges thusly: “The constitutional prohibition is very simple. If a Representative has a controlling interest in a firm or entity, that firm or entity cannot be extended a loan, a guaranty, or a financial accommodation for any business purpose from any government financial institution.
“If that firm or entity would like to obtain a loan, a guaranty or a financial accommodation from a government financial institution, that firm or entity must first relieve itself of the controlling interest of the Representative.
“It is my humble submission that Speaker Villar did not do either.”

C. Villar violated RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), Section 6, which Arroyo quoted, and then translated for his non-lawyer congressional colleagues thusly: “Simply put, during our term of office, each one of us, it shall be unlawful for us to author any law or resolution that would benefit or favor us. The above prohibition shall apply even to that representative who just recommended, not even authored, the enactment of such law that benefited him.”

How did Villar violate this law?

1. Arroyo pointed out that Villar, in his bid for the speakership, prepared a propaganda kit wherein “Representative Villar unequivocally said that he ’incorporated in the landmark Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Finance Act, RA7835, the recapitalization of the National Home Mortgage and Finance Corporation and the amendment to the Agri-Agra Law to include housing investment.’” Villar also, said Arroyo, claimed credit for measures to make Pag-ibig Fund compulsory and to increase housing investments with the SSS.
All of the above measures, Arroyo claimed, benefited Speaker Villar and his companies.

2. What is more, the third paragraph of Section 6 of the Anti-Graft law provides: “It shall likewise be unlawful for such member of Congress…, who, having such interest prior to the approval of such law or resolution authored or recommended by him, continues for thirty days after such approval to retain such interest.” In other words, again, Villar should have divested when the bills that Villar introduced or co-authored were enacted into law. Again, Villar did not.

D. Villar violated the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program provision (no citation) which states that all lands covered by CARP cannot be used for residential, agricultural, industrial or other uses unless a clearance, conversion, or exemption for a particular property is first issued by DAR. How? Because, said Joker, “Speaker Villar’s companies are developing or have developed 5,950 hectares or almost 60,000,000 square meters of CARP lands into residential subdivision (sic) without the appropriate DAR issuances that would authorize such lands to be used for residential purposes. A traducement of the constitutionally directed CARP law.”
Arroyo then illustrates how large an area is covered by the 60 million square meters of land that Villar wrongfully developed: the size of Las Piñas and Makati put together.

The list of Villar’s transgressions, as enumerated by Arroyo in 1998 were long and damning: the Article XI of the Constitution, the Code of Ethics, the Anti-Graft Act, the CARP.

And get this: He then proposed that the House of Representatives “constitute itself into a Committee of the Whole to hear the charges and the Speaker’s defense.” Why? Because “He will have a trial that is more than fair to him for he will be judged by the very peers who elevated him to be the first among equals, only this time they will judge him according to the law.” [Nota bene: it didn’t happen]

Thus spake Joker Arroyo many moons ago.

Eleven years later, Joker Arroyo was singing a different tune. He is now defending Villar from virtually the same charges (except for the CARP violation) he made against Villar when both were in the House of Representatives — i.e., that he used his position and influence for personal gain.

He now seems to be of the opinion that the Senate constituting itself as a Committee of the Whole to hear the charges and Villar’s defense wasn’t such a great idea — he certainly joined in the attempt to stop it from happening, and when the effort failed, he did not participate in the committee work. One can only conclude that he no longer is of the opinion that a Committee of the Whole would be more than fair. He no longer thinks that the very peers who elevated (Villar) to be first among equals — Villar was elected Senate president by the same senators he now feels have ganged up against him — can be fair. Either that, or Arroyo thinks that members of the House of Representatives are fair and senators are not. Unless of course, Arroyo was just grandstanding 11 years ago.

Will the real Joker Arroyo please stand up?

Source :

http://www.bworld.com.ph/main/content.php?id=5691 - removed ???

extra source :

http://pulitika2010.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/will-real-joker-please-stand-up/