Tupas clears son over meddling issue
Fifth district Rep. Rolex Suplico and two other Ilonggo solons may have not named the provincial official who allegedly meddled in the affairs of the House Committee on Good Government, but Iloilo Governor Niel Tupas, Sr. is pretty sure they are referring to his son Board Member Niel Tupas, Jr.
Tupas said, Suplico, who is his nephew, must have misinterpreted Board Member Tupas' act of going to Congress to ask for copies of the transcript of the House investigation on alleged anomalies in the New Iloilo Airport Development Project (NIADP).
Tupas said, he was the one who requested Board Member Tupas to ask from the House Committee on Good Government copies of the transcript of the investigation that ended January this year for their own reference.
"It is our right to ask for copies of the transcript. There is nothing wrong with it," Tupas said in an interview with Aksyon Radyo's Joel Tormon.
The governor denied that the Board Member was out to influence the findings of the House Committee on Good Government.
Suplico along with other Ilonggo solons Ferjinel Biron (4th district) and Janette Garin (1st district) earlier exposed alleged meddling of a provincial official in the affairs of the House Committee on Good Government.
They however refused to categorically identify the official but give clues that the meddler is a provincial official, a lawyer and a scion of a prominent family.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this unwarranted meddling in the purely internal affairs of the House of Representatives. We wish to remind this Iloilo Provincial official that the House of Representatives is neither an extension of the Iloilo Provincial Government nor a barangay in his hometown. He has absolutely no business interfering in the preparation of confidential matters of any committee of the House of Representatives," said Biron in a press statement following Suplico's expose.
Strong words followed by yet stronger statement that went, "We cannot allow this Iloilo provincial to continue his unhampered and malicious interference in the conduct of congressional inquiries concerning anomalies in Iloilo Province. We warn him to immediately cease and desist from continuing his undue meddling, otherwise we shall name him and cite him for contempt."
"I don't buy the idea," was Board Member Domingo Oso's reaction in an earlier interview.
Oso is also a lawyer and a close ally of Governor Tupas.
"How can an ordinary provincial official do that to them in Congress? I cannot fathom that. It is impossible really and personally, I am not aware that somebody is interested in the inquiry results. It is really very remote. And there are only four lawyers in the Provincial Board if they are referring to us and I deny being the one," he said.
Oso further went on to challenge the solons to identify their meddler and be clear with the extent of meddling while saying, "a meddler in the Provincial Government to the affairs of Congress? I cannot accept that. They are persons with integrity so it is really very remote that someone here would do that."
The Committee on Good Government is set to release its recommendations on the Iloilo airport probe. The final draft has been passed around for signatures of the solons and scheduled to be read and presented in the plenary on May 15th.