Ping, Erwin saw Guteza's recantation coming

Senator Ping Lacson saw Orly Guteza’s recantation coming, given the allegations that his sole testimony in the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing in September last year—before he went into hiding—was coached.

Lacson said Thursday that Senate records can attest that Guteza, the initial whistleblower of the kickback scheme in the flood control projects, was coached by Senator Rodante Marcoleta.

He cited CCTV records at the Senate showing Guteza went to Marcoleta’s office, allegedly spending half an hour there, before appearing at the BRC hearing to give his so-called explosive testimony against former Speaker Martin Romualdez and ex-lawmaker Elizaldy Co.

“Since it is on record that Marcoleta coached Guteza, it is not surprising that Guteza would backtrack on his claims,” Lacson said.

“The backtracking of the ‘maleta boys’ has become a dime a dozen, so it's not surprising that Guteza, the original ‘Maleta Boy’ a.k.a. Basura, followed suit,” he added.

Similarly, Senator Erwin Tulfo, the current chair of the BRC, said the developments no longer came as a surprise, alleging that it was obvious from the beginning that his testimony was “full of lies.”

Prior to his recantation, Guteza’s credibility had been called into question after the lawyer who allegedly notarized his affidavit denied preparing the document and filed a report with the Manila court, which investigated the matter and later found that the signature and notarial details were forged.

Guteza, a retired member of the Philippine Marines, was the “surprise witness” of Marcoleta in the BRC’s flood control probe on 23 September last year, which was previously headed by Lacson.

In that hearing, Guteza introduced himself as Co’s former security consultant and alleged that he and other aides regularly delivered luggage stuffed with cold cash to his boss and Romualdez’s residence in Valle Verde 6, Pasig, and McKinley, Taguig, respectively.

Each piece of luggage purportedly contains about P48 million worth of “basura”—code for flood control kickbacks—or up to approximately P1.6 billion.

Romualdez and Co denied Guteza’s allegations, with the former Speaker calling it “pilit na pilit” (extremely forced), suggesting that Guteza was coached by Marcoleta.

Co was the former chair of the powerful House appropriations panel in the 19th Congress.

In the same vein, Lacson previously implied that Marcoleta was coaching Guteza by pointing to instances in which he allegedly guided the witness on what to confess before the committee, based on his affidavit.

After his incriminatory testimony, Guteza vanished from public view and only resurfaced earlier this week to retract his statement. In his affidavit, he claimed that Marcoleta and former Rep. Mike Defensor—staunch critics of the Marcos administration—pressured and bribed him to fabricate allegations against Romualdez, in exchange for money and scholarships for his children.

Before reports of Guteza’s recantation made headlines, four of the 18 so-called bodyguards of Co also retracted their previous statements about the alleged deliveries of cash-filled suitcases to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Romualdez and other senior politicians allied with the government.

Tulfo said the BRC will no longer interfere, adding that it is best to leave the issue involving Guteza entirely with the Ombudsman to expedite the case build-up against the culprits of the flood control scam.

“Even if we find the people involved and the public officials guilty [of wrongdoing], we will still refer the matter to the Ombudsman. Then they will conduct their own investigation based on our findings. So it would only make the process longer and take more time,” he remarked.

Tulfo himself was accused by some of the 18 bodyguards of receiving cash-filled suitcases as kickbacks from flood control, though he denied the allegations and sued his accusers.