Duterte backtracks on ‘lobby money’ talk vs CA
President Duterte has clarified his statement that lobby money could have been used to dissuade members of the powerful Commission on Ap- pointments (CA) from accepting the appointment of Gina Lopez as environment secretary.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Duterte made the clarification at Mon- day’s Cabinet meeting to indicate that he did not mean money changed hands when he said “lobby money talks” during a gathering in Davao City last week.
“We need to correct that. You know, the President did say last night that when he said lobby, it’s not necessarily money. He corrected himself. I mean he clarified himself,” Abella said.
Duterte’s statement came after Sen. Panfilo Lacson decried his statement, saying that the CA rejected Lopez for lack of qualification.
“He said that when he said lobby, people automatically assume that there was an exchange of money. But he said basically, that lobby can, lobby he says is a legal thing that you can actually exercise in order to persuade one’s particular position,” he said.
“So, it was not pejorative – he was saying in a sense. It was… he was clarifying last night. It was not a pejorative accusation that money was transferred or money was exchanged,” Abella explained.
In issuing the clarification, Abella claimed the President was not backtracking on his statement. “He’s not back-pedaling, he’s simply adding to the explanation.”
“He merely said, when I said lobby it’s not necessarily money. He said lobby is a legitimate occupation,” Abella said, adding lobbying was not necessarily financial exchange but a “legitimate persuasion.”
Amid insinuations that mining groups prevailed in ousting Lopez from the DENR, Abella merely said that the lobby came from interested parties.
“It’s only general. He did not specify,” he said. “That was his statement so basically I don’t know kung saan siya nanggagaling (where he is coming from) but I am sure his coming from a position of certainty.”
Pressed further, Abella rejected queries on whether the President was referring to returning “favors” to the interest groups.
The confirmation hearings for Lopez showcased a new rule on secret balloting, which caused confusion and controversy because of the statements made about the supposed influence of mining interests on the Commission on Appointments (CA).
Apart from a handful of legislators who openly declared how they voted in the case of Lopez, the majority opted to keep silent, raising speculations about who actually opposed her confirmation.
CA member Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV filed a resolution yesterday calling for a review of the rule on secret balloting, as he argued that this kind of controversy should not happen again.