Pangilinan Eyed To Head Flood Probe Subcommittee

Sen. Francis Pangilinan is being eyed to head a subcommittee that would continue the investigation on the flood control anomaly, according to Senate Blue Ribbon chairman Sen. Erwin Tulfo.

Speaking over dwIZ on Saturday, June 13,, Tulfo said the subcommittee would be formed when session resumes and only after the Blue Ribbon is fully constituted on the floor.

He said he will nominate Pangilinan as the subcommittee chairman if a special session is convened to pave the way for the election of Senate President Pro Tempore Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate president.

“If that day will come, I myself, I will say, I will stand up, I am inhibiting myself from the flood control investigation. I will say, I let Sen. Kiko Pangilinan to preside a subcommittee that will handle anything about flood control,” Tulfo said.

He assumed the Blue Ribbon chairmanship after the “Solid Bloc’s” leadership takeover on June 3 before the sine die adjournment.

Allies of deposed Senate president Alan Peter Cayetano claimed they still have the Blue Ribbon, as they launched a flood control “hearing” on June 4 that saw the 18 men claiming to be former soldiers repeating their allegations that they had delivered flood control kickbacks to administration officials and allies.

Tulfo days later held a “consultative meeting” on June 8, with none of the 18 present.  

Tulfo said the subcommittee is needed because he plans to “inhibit” himself from the Blue Ribbon investigation, after his name was dragged in the flood control mess by the 18 men.

Tulfo has since filed a defamation complaint against three of them.

He said his move to call for a subcommittee probe was also in response to the call of the lawyer of the 18 men, Levito Baligod that he inhibit himself from the probe.

Tulfo also rejected a  repeat of the Blue Ribbon probe on the nine to 10 senators under investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman for their alleged role in the flood control anomaly. 

He said his predecessor in the Blue Ribbon, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, had already forwarded all the pieces of evidence to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla for preliminary investigation.

“Ombudsman Remulla has already spoken that the Senate should not meddle. We are only in aid of legislation,” Tulfo said. 

On X, Lacson thanked Tulfo for joining him as his then vice chair in signing the partial flood control probe report, which failed to get reported to plenary because of resistance from other senators.

Tulfo confirmed what Lacson had said about their peers from the Cayetano bloc convincing them not to sign the report out of camaraderie.

When Tulfo told a certain senator at the executive lounge that it was his duty to sign the report as then Blue Ribbon vice chair, she got mad.

Two other male senators confronted him about his signature on the partial report, Tulfo said.

The other senators resisted signing the report because it recommended a preliminary investigation on their allies, Senators Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva.

Estrada is already detained at the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas for his plunder case before the Sandiganbayan.

Former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. is detained in the same facility for a malversation case over an allegedly anomalous P92.8 million flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan.

Tulfo called the Cayetano bloc’s “sham” Blue Ribbon hearing last June 4 as “in aid of grandstanding” meant to clear their allies from the corruption issue.

He called on Cayetano to abandon his claim to the Senate presidency and work with the new leadership instead, as he took issue with their claim that the new majority is aligned with Malacañang.