Presidential aide asserts innocence in frigate deal

THE SPECIAL Assistant of President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday asserted innocence in the controversial P15.5-billion frigate acquisition project of the Philippine Navy, saying he was being linked to the controversy as an attempt to destroy the Navy’s project and the current administration.

“I am innocent. I was dragged into the issue in order to destroy the administration of President Duterte,” Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” T. Go told The Senate committee on national defense during its inquiry into the frigate project.

Mr. Go also said the controversy “is seriously derailing the implementation” of the frigate deal, as he noted the Navy’s urgent need to acquire the warships in order to guard the country’s waters.

“Perhaps, this is really their intention: to block the implementation of this important security program and ensure that this administration will fail,” said Mr. Go, who was accompanied at the hearing by leading members of Mr. Duterte’s Cabinet.

Mr. Go was reported to have intervened in the project when he handed out a white paper to Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana endorsing a supplier which would provide the Combat Management System (CMS) for the two frigates.

At the hearing, Mr. Go pointed out that no one intervened in the contract between the government and the frigate manufacturer Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), noting that the program was “concluded during the Aquino administration.”

“Nothing changed, nothing was changed and nobody intervened in the contract... the contract could be called photo finish because this was done before the Aquino administration ends,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.

“What we are discussing here only became an issue when Rappler(. com) and the ( Philippine Daily) Inquirer came out with fake news and claimed that I interfered in this issue,” Mr. Go also said in a statement read to the senators, adding that, “(t)his is irresponsible reporting, and I would like to sincerely request the Senate to continue with the hearing and the investigation on fake news and to summon Rappler and Inquirer to the next hearing to shed light on what they reported.”

He added that Mr. Duterte had ordered that any requests in his name or those of the President’s relatives be denied.

For his part, former Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin confirmed that acquisition of the frigates began with the previous administration. But he also noted, “I did not issue any approval for awarding of the projects and other subsequent steps during the transition period...to give the next administration the opportunity to issue or not the necessary approval,” he said.