Zero credibility

House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. who, despite knowing that he can’t get Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno dismissed by President Duterte, continues with his attempts to smear the good name and reputation of Diokno, even if in the end, it is Andaya who is destroying himself.

“He looks foolish in his attempts to link Diokno’s daughter to the construction firm, despite the fact that the daughter has nothing to do with the construction firm.

Andaya holds a hearing, which is against House rules, something which he should be well aware considering that he is, as the House majority leader, the head of the House Committee on Rules.

It was reportedly pointed out that Andaya led his committee to investigate the Department of Budget and Management and contractors at a hearing in Naga, over which he had no jurisdiction or authority to do so.

Weeks before the close of 2018, Andaya, whose plans to get the Road Tax body to continue its existence, as this particular agency has apparently become a cash cow for some congressmen and senators, has been concentrating on smearing Diokno by desperately trying to link the Budget secretary to a certain contractor whose stepson, who has nothing to do with the company, is married to Diokno’s daughter.

However, his attempt at linking Diokno to the contractor through his daughter who clearly has nothing to do with the contracting firm has again failed and, worse, Andaya has been exposed as being a violator of House rules.

He has been trying hard to embarrass Diokno when it is he who ends up being an embarrassing House official.

The latest report had Andaya claiming that he was in possession of bank transaction records implicating the construction firm of the in-laws of Diokno’s daughter who Andaya claimed received millions of pesos worth of anomalous government contracts.

“We are now in possession of bank transaction receipts showing that Aremar Construction received more than P50 million as share in the flood control scam,” Andaya said in a statement.

“With this development, the evidence against Aremar has reached the plunder point,” he added.

Apparently, Andaya does not even know just what the predicate crime of plunder consists.

Even worse for Andaya is that he looks foolish in his attempts to link Diokno’s daughter to the construction firm, despite the fact that the daughter has nothing to do with the construction firm and it is no crime for any wife to be married to a relative of the owners of the firm.

So, why even think of linking Diokno to the construction firm simply because his daughter is married to a stepson of the firm’s owner, except to smear him?

The trouble with Andaya is that, compared to Diokno, who has proven his integrity year after year in public service, the majority leader has zero credibility, given the fact that he has been charged with multiple counts, not only for graft, but also for malversation with falsified documents.

And, Andaya is apparently again into the practice of falsifying documents.

“The public hearing conducted by the House Rules Committee in Naga City has attracted more whistle-blowers willing to spill the beans on anomalous budget practices and allocations by the DBM,” Andaya claimed.

He added, “Immediately after the hearing, several contractors in Bicol region approached me and expressed their willingness to cooperate with the House investigation. They voluntarily offered to provide solid evidence confirming our initial findings that contractors related to Secretary Diokno are using dummies to get multi-million government contracts.”

“The majority leader has zero credibility, given the fact that he has been charged with multiple counts, not only for graft, but also for malversation.

Andaya has already earned the reputation of issuing falsehoods. He brags about his hearings having attracted many whistle-blowers providing him with “solid evidence” as he also included several contractors who Andaya claimed are willing to spill the beans.

This he claimed much earlier when he tried destroying Diokno, yet to this day, he has not produced a single alleged whistle-blower who is willing to testify under oath. As stated earlier, he has no credibility at all.

Good grief, Andaya is accusing Diokno, through linkages for an alleged “solid proof” of his accusations consisting of some P11 million deposited to Aremar, the construction company and not to the daughter either, when Andaya should explain to the Filipino people why he has over P1.5 billion in pork insertions.

Diokno denied Andaya’s allegations and was quoted as saying that Andaya’s “accusations are illusory. The numbers are wrong and the narrative he’s selling is not grounded on facts.”

But look at how Andaya tries so hard to link Diokno to his accusations that the construction firm was favored by Diokno due to his daughter.

Andaya, during the Naga hearing, presented what he claimed was proof that the construction firm of the in-laws of the Budget chief’s daughter ultimately received millions of pesos in government funds for the construction of various infrastructure projects.

That is not “solid proof” and Andaya knows it.

Andaya should just drop his accusations against Diokno and his daughter. They won’t get anywhere anyway.

Neither would Andaya get anywhere after when a new Congress opens. He certainly will be out as House majority floor leader and good riddance, too!