Senators Francis Tolentino and Risa Hontiveros got involved in a heated argument on Tuesday over the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report on the sugar importation fiasco.
Tolentino was being interpellated by Hontiveros over the contents of the Blue Ribbon panel report which recommended the filing of criminal and administrative charges against former officials of the Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA) on their supposed role in the issuance of the controversial Sugar Order No. 4—in which the lady lawmaker aired her opposition against some parts of the committee recommendation.
Hontiveros seemingly defended suspended Agriculture Secretary Leocadio Sebastian and three former SRA officials against the recommendations made by Tolentino’s panel, noting that ‘good faith’ can be used as a shield for those individuals who are accused of acts that they did not carry out.
“Minsan po kapag po ‘yung mga posibleng inosente ay inaakusahan ng mga krimen na posibleng hindi naman nila ginawa, minsan po, Mr. President, good faith na lang ‘yung huling depensa nila at ‘wag naman po sana nating ipagkait ‘yon sa kanila,” said Hontiveros.
Hontiveros earlier stressed that those who were recommended to be charged before the Office of the Ombudsman were “mere fall guys” and just acted based on the alleged instructions given by higher authorities, particularly President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and former Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez.
During the series of inquiries conducted by Tolentino’s panel, Sebastian claimed that he acted on ‘good faith’ in behalf of Marcos on the issuance of SO 4 based on the July 15 memorandum issued by Rodriguez which authorized the embattled official to sign contracts in the behalf of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and act as the agency’s de facto officer-in-charge.
Tolentino, for his part, was consistently defending the recommendations enshrined in the committee report since “there is evidence of conspiracy” against Sebastian and others.
In rebuttal to Hontiveros’ pronouncement, Tolentino said in his entire experience with the law profession, “there are badges of fraud, badges of bad faith but not badges of good faith.”
The lady senator was quick to respond, noting several jurisprudences from the Supreme Court which cited that ‘badges good faith’ can be used a safeguard of those implicated parties, particularly in the September 2020 case of Madera vs Commission on Audit (COA), the October 2020 case of De Guzman vs COA and in the November 2020 case of the Social Security System vs. COA.
At that moment, Tolentino got irked and took offense at Hontiveros’ remarks.
“I take offense, Mr. President, to that attribution… my lack of knowledge should not be implicated here. I have a law exam on Tuesday so I am still a law student right now. Perhaps your staff are not the law students here,” said Tolentino.
“If there is an incumbent student here, I am the one,” he added.
The former Duterte-era political adviser asked Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to immediately delete Hontiveros’ pronouncement from the Senate Journal, in which the lady senator has no objection and later also did apologize to Tolentino, noting that her statement was “no offense meant.”
“I’m sorry that I caused offense to the good chair… I was simply saying that we should not fault anyone if (they are) not yet aware of these new facts,” said Hontiveros.
