KABAYAN party-list Rep. Harry L. Roque has said he does not recognize the “legality, legitimacy, and validity” of the “‹group identifying itself as “Kabayan Party-list board.”
The board seeks to investigate him for his questioning of Ronnie Dayan during the House committee on justice investigation on the proliferation of illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prison.
“I do not recognize the legality, legitimacy and validity of this so-called Board you purportedly head, as it was established merely to protect the interests of Ron Salo, who happens to be your BFF,” Roque said in a letter to Joshua Sebastian, a long-time associate of Salo who heads the board handpicked by the latter to investigate Roque.
The initials BFF, in current parlance, means “best friend forever.”
Sebastian sent a letter to Roque asking him to explain his alleged “malicious statements” against Salo.
Roque said he “will not dignify the charade of a proceeding” by explaining himself when Sebastian and his allies have not responded to his call that Kabayan investigate Salo for his involvement in the P3.8-billion motor vehicle license plates anomaly of the previous administration.
“I presume you and the other members of your so-called Board aren’t blind and deaf, so you should know that Ron Salo now stands charged in court for estafa by falsification of commercial documents and is facing complaints for plunder and graft and corruption before the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice in connection with a P3.8-billion motor vehicle license plates anomaly during the past administration,” Roque said.
“This Ron Salo now facing criminal charges in court for a humungous act of graft and corruption is the same Ron Salo who shamelessly calls himself a preacher of the Christian gospel,” he added.
“Since you claim to be a pastor like Ron Salo, in the interest of ‘righteous leadership’ that you trumpet to be one of Kabayan’s founding values, you ought to know that defrauding government and inconveniencing so many Filipinos by way of a corruption-ridden government contract is an act of immorality that reaches the high heavens.”
Roque said the DOJ previously indicted Salo and other executives of local firm Power Plates Development Concepts Inc. and Dutch company J. Knieriem B.V. Goes for estafa through falsification of commercial documents in connection with the P3.8-billion contract of the Land Transportation Office in the previous administration for the controversial new car plates.
Preliminary investigation revealed Salo and managing director Christian Calalang submitted to the Bids and Awards Committee a document they said was the audited financial statement of JKG as a requirement for bidding for the Motor Vehicle License Plate Standardization Program, he added.
“However, upon careful examination of the said document, it turned out that it is not the audited financial statement of JKG. What the respondents submitted during the bidding were the 2011 annual accounts of respondent JKG issued by the Chamber of Commerce of The Hague, the Netherlands, the 2011 consolidated accounts of H3 BV (the parent company of JKG),” the Assistant State Prosecutor’s resolution stated.
For public bidding purposes, a participating corporation is required by law to submit an audited financial statement showing that it is actually financially capable of implementing the project.