Roxas dares opponents to file charges vs. owner of leased aircraft  

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu - Administration standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II on Friday dared his political opponents to file charges against the businessman who owns the aircraft he had been using for his campaign sorties.

“Kung meron mang kamalian, merong kakulangan, eh di file-an nila ng kaso. Simpleng-simple po yan, hindi po ako ang tagapangasiwa, hindi po ako ang sumusubaybay sa mga gawaing ito,” Roxas told reporters in a chance interview here.

A newspaper report quoting Rodney Basiana, owner of Basiana Mining Exploration Corp., said Roxas should correct the wrongdoings committed by San Roque Metals Inc. (SRMI), a small-scale mining firm owned by Francis “Eric” Gutierrez.

According to the report, Basiana said his firm was convinced to give its mining rights to Gutierrez’s company in exchange of five percent of SMRI’s sale per year. However, Basiana said SMRI has failed to fulfill its payments for the past 10 years.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who is also running for president, earlier accused Roxas of corruption for leasing planes from Gutierrez, whose mining company had been fined by the government in 2007 for over-extracting nickel ore.

"You (Roxas) have been using his (Gutierrez's) planes. I have personally seen him (Roxas) use that plane in Davao. If that is not corruption, then what do you call that?...Sabi ko nga akala ko mga bilyonaryo ito, hindi ito mga corrupt,” Duterte said.

According to news reports, SRMI and its sister companies, San R Mining and Galeo Equipment and Mining Corp.-- which were classified as small-scale mining firms-- extracted around 1.8 million metric tons of nickel ore from August 2006 to September 2007.

They were ordered to pay a P7-million fine for overextraction since the law only allows small-scale nickel mining firms to extract 50,000 MT of ore annually, or a total of 150,000 for the three companies.

Despite being fined for overextraction, Duterte said Gutierrez was able to continue with his business because of his links to Roxas.

Rehashed statements

But Roxas said his opponents are merely rehashing their statements on the issue.

“Itong mga paratang na ito ay mga paratang na itinatapon ng ating mga katunggali dahil wala na silang masabi sa anong plano nila para sa ating bansa,” he said.

Roxas speculated that it was Vice President Jejomar Binay who was behind such move, as he called on the standard bearer of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) to explain the corruption allegations against him instead.

“Ang importante dito halimbawa ay ipaliwanag ni Vice President Binay kung papaano si Ebeng Baloloy, isang kilalang pangalan bilang kanyang long time private secretary, papano na dumaan higit sa daang milyong piso sa bank account sa Ebeng Baloloy, yan hindi yan puchu-puchu, yan hindi yan chismis, yan nasa AMLC report yan, yan ang mga dapat na tukuyin nila,” Roxas said.

Roxas was referring to Eduviges “Ebeng” Baloloy, one of Binay’s aides, who was summoned to the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing on the corruption allegations against the Vice President. Baloloy, however, snubbed the invitation of the subcommittee and has not surfaced since. — RSJ, GMA News