Calida: No reason I should bother Duterte with security firm issue

Solicitor General Jose Calida on Thursday said he never talked with President Rodrigo Duterte about the controversy hounding his family's security agency.

"I didn't. This does not concern actually the President. My conscience is clear. There's no reason why I should bother the President with this problem," Calida said in an interview on CNN Philippines.

Calida said moralityhas nothing to do with the accusations being hurled at him.

"As far as I'm concerned, I've not done anything wrong and therefore there's no issue of morality here," Calida told CNN Philippines in an interview.

Calida family-owned Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc. (VISAI) has bagged contracts worth over P150 million with the National Parks Development Committee (NPDC), the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), Department of Justice (DOJ), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) between 2015 and 2018.

While he resigned from the chairmanship of the firm in May 2016, before he was appointed solicitor general by President Rodrigo Duterte, he continues to hold a 60-percent share in the company.

Calida said he sees no need to divest these shares, unless, he said, there is an "actual conflict of interest."

His critics have called for his resignation, saying he should not have let his family firm secure lucrative government contracts.

President Rodrigo Duterte, however, stood by the government's embattled top legal counsel, who said his attackers have no evidence against him.

"When they attack, they should attack with evidence... but there's none. So this is just rumor-mongering actually," Calida said.

"This is really a vicious attack because I represent the government and the government always wins the cases that I've handled in the Supreme Court," he added.

But more than him, Calida said the employees of their family firm would be the ones to take the biggest blow from this "attack," adding that they stand to lose their jobs.

"As I told you, one of our advocacies is to provide jobs for those who don't have and also to give benefits to our security guards. If we close shop, many guards will lose their jobs. We cannot afford that. Nakakakonsiyensiya na [iyon]," he added, when asked about "delicadeza."

Wanda Teo comparison 'erroneous'

The chief government lawyer also took exception to the comparison of his case to that of former Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo, who resigned after state auditors flagged P60-million tourism ad payments to her brothers' blocktimer show on state-run People's Television Network.

Drawing a comparison between Teo and Calida, whose families were both linked to conflict-of-interest accusations, opposition senator Francis Pangilinan earlier called on the solicitor general to resign.

"The comparison is erroneous. In the case of Teo, she was the head of the Department of Tourism (DOT). Where did the money come from? From the DOT and she's the head of that department. Where was the money invested or given? It was given to the company of her brother, who is a blocktimer in PTV-4. That is not the case in Vigilant," Calida said in the interview.

"The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) does not give money to whatever," he added.

VISAI, founded in 2001, initially catered to private companies, only a few of which were capable of giving security guards minimum wage, Calida said. 

Public bidding came into the picture because government agencies, having an approved budget, provide an "assurance" that their guards will be sufficiently compensated, he explained.

But VISAI does not always win government bidding, he said, claiming that since he became solicitor general, VISAI has lost three: two with the Philippine Sports Commission and one for the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation - Malate.

He said the security firm has also won contracts even before he assumed office at the OSG. — Anna Felicia Bajo and Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/BM/MDM, GMA News