MANILA, Philippines — All senators united in their decision to support their fellow senator, Joel Villanueva, as they defied the order from the Office of the Ombudsman dismissing the former head of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
Villanueva was earlier charged with malversation, graft and falsification of public documents over the allegedly anomalous disbursement of his 10 million-peso Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF when he was the Citizens Battle against Corruption or CIBAC party-list representative.
All of the senators supported the motion of Senate Majority Floor Leader and Committee on Rules chairman Vicente Sotto III to adopt the opinion of Senate Legal Counsel Attorney Maria Valentina Cruz.
Cruz, citing the constitution and the Senate rules, stressed that only the upper house has the power to suspend or dismiss from service any of its members after an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee.
But the senators said there was no ethics complaint filed against Villanueva since Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales ordered his dismissal in November
The Senate Legal Counsel’s opinion said that based on Section 21 of Republic Act 6770 or the Ombudsman Act of 1989, the Ombudsman had no power to punish or evict from power any member of the upper and lower houses of Congress
The Ombudsman found Villanueva and nine others liable for misuse of the Cibac Partylist’s 2008 priority development assistance fund or PDAF.
Villanueva, however, denied the Ombudsman’s claim that he benefited from his PDAF, claiming that he did not pocket a single centavo from it.
