Andaya: Firm of Diokno daughter’s in-laws got P50M for questionable gov’t deals

House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. on Friday claimed that he was in possession of bank transaction records implicating that the construction firm of the in-laws of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno's daughter 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.

The threshold amount for the filing of plunder charges is P50 million.

Aremar Construction is owned by Maria Minez Hamor, daughter of Edwin and Ester Hamor. Edwin is running for reelection as mayor of Casiguran, Sorsogon, according to the lawmaker.

Diokno's daughter Charlotte is married to Edwin Hamor's son, Jojo Sicat.

On Thursday, the House Committee on Rules conducted a hearing on supposed anomalies in the proposed 2019 national budget in Naga City.

"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 said.

"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," he added.

Edwin Hamor, a former executive of Aremar Construction Corp., has denied that his family's company got P551 million worth of government contracts as a favor from Diokno.

During the hearing in Naga City, Andaya showed a deposit slip indicating that an P11-million payout was made to Aremar's bank account by the government.

It was alleged that Aremar's joint venture partner CT Leoncio construction was just a front and was just receiving commission fee for cornering the government projects.

The joint venture projects of CT Leoncio and Aremar being questioned by Andaya are the following: improvement of the Ariman-Casiguran Road (P47 million), Barcelona-Casiguran Diversion Road (P96 million), a tourism road in Bulusan National Park (P115 million) and the section of Daang Maharlika Road in Sorsogon (P289 million).

"These transaction receipts include the deposit slip for P11 million that found its way to the Land Bank account of Aremar last October. Naipakita na namin ito sa hearing. Yung iba pang bank receipts, sa susunod na hearing na namin ipi-prisinta," Andaya said.

"With these pieces of evidence, we will ask the Bureau of Internal Revenue for official documents related to tax payments made by Aremar Construction and its incorporators. Titingnan natin kung nagma-match ba ang tax payments nila sa mga income na pumapasok sa bank accounts nila," he added.

"If this income will not reflect in their tax payments, Aremar will have another problem. Not only the possibility of plunder but also tax evasion," Andaya said.

Diokno denied Andaya's allegations.

“His accusations are illusory. The numbers are wrong and the narrative he’s selling is not grounded on facts,” Diokno said.

Andaya said Diokno should advise his son-in-law Jojo Sicat to get a good lawyer.

"As incorporator of Aremar, Jojo Sicat is duty-bound to ensure that their construction firm does not violate the laws of the land," Andaya said. —NB, GMA News