SEN. Francis N. Tolentino on Wednesday presided over the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations) first organizational meeting with a promise to accomplish the committee’s constitutional mandate as well as to fulfill its powers in aid of legislation.

Tolentino appealed to the members of the committee to be forthright in coming up with a Blue Ribbon roadmap which would entail — for purposes of the hearing — a known duration, a defined direction and not evolve into a political circus.

Tolentino emphasized that the Committee must do its job at the same time respect the rights of the witnesses and the resource persons, prevent abuses and pass the proper remedial legislation with the known standard of proof.

“We will not be here to witch hunt, or to have a fishing expedition, we will be here, in the succeeding hearings, to gather and uncover the truth. We will do what is right,” Tolentino said, adding: “Kahit sino po ang masaktan,we will do what is right.”

During the hearing,Senator Robinhood Padilla agreed with Sen. Tolentino, chairperson of the Blue Ribbon Committee, that the panel should not favor anyone nor be an instrument to advance one’s political interest.

During the committee’s hybrid organizational meeting Wednesday, August 17, 2022, Padilla said there will be no sacred cow in the investigations to be conducted by the committee. “As enshrined in the Constitution, we will respect and protect the rights even of the accused,” Padilla said.

He said the blue ribbon committee will not go for “guilt beyond reasonable doubt standard” as this is the job of the prosecutors and the courts.

“Our job is to satisfy ourselves to have an inner conviction that moral certitude—that a person appearing before this committee has committed a wrongdoing which would necessitate the filing the appropriate charges before competent authorities, notably the Ombudsman and the next page would probably be the Sandiganbayan,” he said.

In the same meeting, Tolentino named former Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang as senior legal consultant of the blue ribbon panel and former Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera.

Their designation show the seriousness of the committee in tackling the resolutions, Tolentino said.

The panel has agreed to hold the first investigation into Sugar Order No. 4 on August 23 while the hearing on the reported overpriced and outdated laptops by the Department of Education on August 25.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros enjoins the panel to hold to account government officials who are found to have been misusing public funds. Hontiveros renewed her appeal for the abolition of the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service (PS-DBM) over findings of allegedly overpriced laptops purchased by the Department of Education (DepEd).

Hontiveros cited complaints reaching her office that beneficiaries of scholarship programs under the Unified Financial Assistance System (UniFAST) have yet to receive their subsidies.
Prompted by Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri’s earlier speech, Sen. Francis Tolentino says Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will begin its probe into the sugar importation mess on August 23.