PCIJ
IT wasn't a quiet weekend at the Palace, as Malacañang went into overdrive bashing the Cabinet secretaries who tendered their resignations yesterday.
Lakas Congressman Prospero Pichay, interviewed on radio, flung accusations of conflict of interest against Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina who Pichay says formed a company called LGC logistics involved in the importation of electronic products for the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal (Calabarzon) Area.
Pichay claims to have confronted Lina a month ago with the matter but according to Pichay, Lina wouldn't let go of a P100-million business.
Pichay also says former Customs Commissioner Guillermo Parayno, until yesterday the chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, was also an incorporator in the company.
Presidential Chief of Staff Rigoberto Tiglao, interviewed over GMA-7, also had some things to say about his former colleagues, who he said "chose to grandstand."
Just four days ago, Tiglao said, President Arroyo gave resigned Secretary of Trade Juan Santos the go-signal to pursue an anti-poverty program. There was also Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima whose proposal for the privatization of PAGCOR was considered by the administration but found impossible to implement without legislation from Congress. Tiglao also chastised resigned National Anti Poverty Commission Chair Imelda Nicolas for leaving the commission high and dry amid all the work that needed to be done.
"Para akong sundalo sa kainitan nang labanan, pagtalikod ko umalis na ang mga kasama ko (I felt like a soldier in the middle of a war who suddenly turned to find myself abandoned by my comrades)," Tiglao said of his resigned former colleagues who were themselves busy giving press conferences and interviews today.
What has happened is that for now, the Palace has shifted the focus of contention and debate from the President to her former Cabinet and sub-Cabinet appointees, which just might give the news media more than enough space to crowd out the President.
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