The so-called “18 ex-Marines” will skip the 8 June Blue Ribbon Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Erwin Tulfo after Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano advised them that the proceeding was unauthorized and could not guarantee the protections normally afforded to witnesses.

In a 6 June letter to the group’s lawyer, Levi Baligod, Cayetano, who maintained he remains Senate president, thanked the former military personnel for testifying at last week’s Blue Ribbon subcommittee hearing presided over by Sen. Rodante Marcoleta despite the risks involved.

“We are deeply mindful of the courage and personal risk your testimony required, and we do not take that sacrifice lightly,” the letter read.

Cayetano said the 8 June hearing “was not authorized” by his office, by Sen. Pia Cayetano as Blue Ribbon Committee chairperson, or by Marcoleta as subcommittee chairperson.

“None of these offices scheduled such a hearing or authorized director Josephine D.G. Herrera to issue any invitation in connection with it,” the letter stated. “The notice you received did not come from any of them.”

He stressed that only the offices of Pia Cayetano and Marcoleta, or the committee secretariat acting under their authority, may issue official notices and invitations for Blue Ribbon proceedings.

No assurance

Cayetano also warned the witnesses that proceedings conducted outside the authority of the committee’s designated chairpersons may not provide the safeguards and protections normally accorded to witnesses.

“It is also our duty to caution the ‘18 Soldiers’ that we cannot assure them that any proceeding conducted outside the authority of the duly designated chairpersons will afford the procedural safeguards and protection accorded to witnesses before properly constituted hearings,” he wrote.

Citing recent threats of arrest against participants and the involvement of several government agencies in matters related to the testimony, Cayetano urged the witnesses to exercise caution.

“We therefore urge all concerned to exercise prudence and to verify the source and authority of any invitation purporting to compel their appearance,” the letter stated.

“No person summoned to testify should face threat or intimidation, whatever the committee’s eventual findings may be,” he added.

The decision deprives Tulfo’s scheduled hearing of its key witnesses and further deepens the Senate leadership dispute, with rival factions continuing to claim authority over the Blue Ribbon Committee.

Marcos ‘kickback’

The 18 ex-Marines earlier testified before a Marcoleta-led subcommittee hearing, alleging that they delivered suitcases of cash from flood control kickbacks to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, former Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Tulfo and other officials.

They also claimed to have worked as security personnel and couriers for fugitive former lawmaker Elizaldy Co.

All those implicated have denied the allegations. Tulfo has branded the claims baseless and warned that the witnesses could face libel charges.