Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday lost his temper when asked about alleged corruption in the decommissioning process for former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF.

During the hearing of the Senate Committee on National Defense, Senator Raffy Tulfo inquired about the discrepancy between the number of surrenderees and the number of surrendered firearms by the former members of the MILF.

According to Galvez, a total of 26,132 combatants of the MILF have returned to the fold of the law, while 4,625 firearms have been decommissioned.

This was flagged by Tulfo, who said the number of surrenderees should match the number of surrendered firearms.

“How come you were not bothered that 26,000 surrenderees were given P100,000 each, which totaled P2.6 billion, yet the firearms that have been surrendered were only about 4,000,” he said.

“Because if it was me, sorry, sir. I am not saying you are corrupt; I said it is within the organization; if it were me, I would have been bothered. It would be an all hell break loose [situation],” he added.

Responding to the senator’s question, Galvez stressed that “personally owned” firearms of surrenderees were not decommissioned as they would be part of a “different program.”

Unsatisfied, Tulfo berated Galvez for allowing surrenderees to receive P100,000 from the government despite keeping their personally owned firearms.

“You should have not allowed that. There should be no P100,000 if there are no firearms. There should be money in exchange for firearms,” he said.

“Sorry, sir. Let us say there is no corruption, but then there is stupidity. Sorry for the word,” he added.

The senator then challenged Galvez to provide evidence that would account for the P2.6 billion spent on the decommissioning process for the former MILF rebels.

“We should give importance to the lives of our soldiers and police. We should not just proceed with peace talks and provide amnesty for – sorry again – to make money,” he said.

“Stop being very defensive because I’m not referring to you, I’m referring to the body, but to the organization that facilitated this process. I will stand by what I’ve said. It was used to milk money,” he added.

Galvez quickly refuted the lawmaker’s accusation, stressing that he was the one who led the decommissioning process.

“I beg to disagree that we milked money from the decommissioning because I, myself, I’m really implementing this. I would like to really,” he said.

Tulfo stopped Galvez from completing his answer with a challenge.

“Then show me proof because if you provide proof I will take back what I have said. Show it in the next hearing,” he said.

Responding to the challenge, a visibly irked Galvez said: “I will show proof that we are not corrupt.”

Tulfo asked Galvez why he was getting angry.

“Because you’re accusing us that our organization is corrupt,” he answered the lawmaker.

Tulfo then reiterated his point that the huge discrepancy in the number of surrenderees and surrendered firearms must be explained properly.

“Even a Juan dela Cruz in the street can tell the huge discrepancy. There is a problem here. We are talking about billions of pesos here,” he said.

“If we are talking about P200,000 or P2 million, I might, I’ll let it go but if we’re talking about billions. Come on, sir. There’s something wrong,” he added.

He continued: “I’m not saying that you’re corrupt, I don’t know why are you getting mad. There is really corruption here. I stand by what I said, there is corruption.”