Puno sees demolition job vs Romualdez ahead of ICI attendance

House Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno questioned Monday the timing of reports linking Leyte Rep. and former Speaker Martin Romualdez to alleged anomalous projects in Eastern Visayas, saying it is meant to sabotage the latter's appearance before the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI).

“I think malungkot ang timing kasi the former Speaker is going to speak before the Independent Commission tomorrow so parang may konting demolition na nangyayari rito,” Puno told reporters.

(The timing is unfortunate because the former Speaker is set to appear before ICI tomorrow.)

Puno was referring to reports linking Romualdez to supposedly questionable 33 farm-to-market road projects in the Eastern Visayas region worth P791 million. Eastern Visayas is composed of the provinces of Biliran, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, and Southern Leyte.

“There is scapegoating that is going on, nagtuturuan and then people are pointing to other people so that they will be able to escape their responsibility. I think these kinds of demolition and negative propaganda should be evaluated by the public,” Puno added.

(They are pinning the blame on certain people.)

Romualdez is scheduled to appear before the ICI since he is also being linked to alleged anomalous flood control projects.

The former House speaker has repeatedly denied allegations linking him to anomalies. 

"If anyone invoked my name, they did so without my knowledge and without my consent. At kung ginawa nila iyon para kumita, sila ang mandaraya at sila ang dapat managot. And I say this with all honesty: I have never, and I will never, accept a bribe from anybody," he said.

Why now? 

Puno said that even Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. initially did not mention Leyte as one of those areas with ghost farm to market road projects.

He was referring to Tiu Laurel’s September 30 revelation that there are P75 million worth of ghost farm to market roads in Mindanao.

“He mentioned ghost projects but Leyte was not mentioned. So I don’t know where that report came from about the Leyte farm to market roads,” he said.

“There is all of these distractions that are being created and I’m sensing a lynch-mob mentality trying to pin the (former) Speaker alone to all of the things that have happened which is terribly unfair,” he added.

Puno also said reports did not even seek confirmation from other government officials in charge of implementing the projects such as those from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Agriculture (DA).

“You could have asked the people that are directly involved with it—the district engineer, the provincial agriculturists—nobody bothered to ask them. And I think that is unfair to so many people,” he said. —AOL, GMA Integrated News