Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

Press Statements
  • Office of Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
  • 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
  • 07 August 2011

 

          While the furtive presidential trip to Tokyo is no longer a secret, much of what transpired or what was discussed in the meeting between the President and MILF chieftain Murad remain under wraps.

           Secrets may be maintained between lovers, but there should be no secrets between the President and the Filipino people.

           After a meeting which reportedly lasted for two hours, the bits and pieces of information which trickled to media are scanty and stereotyped.

           The House Minority supports the President’s initiative for a peaceful settlement of the decades-old armed conflict in Muslim Mindanao, but we cannot support a peace agenda whose parameters are nebulous and whose terms of engagement and possible agreement are concealed.

           Since any negotiation and settlement with the MILF would involve national security, the President must convene the National Security Council which he has not done since his incumbency despite security concerns like that of Spratly’s.

           I reiterate my call for the President to tell the people the real score and the people are entitled to know the answers to the following questions:

           1. What was the reason of the President in making his trip to Japan secret?

          2. What are the parameters for the impending peace negotiations?

           3. What are the bottom line demands of the MILF?

           4. Is the Philippines ready to offer certain concessions?

           5. How would the rival MNLF be treated and/or accommodated in the peace talks?

           6. What pieces of legislation are necessary to enhance the successful implementation of any peace accord?

           7. How much is the budgetary requirement for the conduct of the negotiations and enforcement of any peaceful settlement?

           8. How would the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) fit into the negotiation and eventual agreement?

           9. With the President’s meeting with Murad, what kind of special status did he confer on the Muslim rebel leader and his insurgency?

Press Release
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Mobile Nos. 0916-6406741 / 0918-9120137
  • 06 August 2011

 

           Minority leader and Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman urged President Benigno S. Aquino to forthwith personally bare to the Filipino people the highlights of his secret meeting with MILF Chieftain Al Haj Murad Ibrahim in Tokyo.

           The people are entitled to know in the spirit of transparency what happened during the furtive talks.

           The following questions must be answered:

          (1) What was the reason of the President in making his trip to Japan secret?

           (2)     What are the parameters for the impending peace negotiations?

           (3)     What are the bottom line demands of the MILF?

           (4)     Is the Philippines ready to offer certain concessions?

(5)     How would the rival MNLF be treated and/or accommodated in the peace talks?

(6)     What pieces of legislation are necessary to enhance the successful implementation of any peace accord?

(7)     How much is the budgetary requirement for the conduct of the negotiations and enforcement of any peaceful settlement?

(8)     How would the existing Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) fit into the negotiation and eventual agreement?

(9)     With the President’s meeting with Murad, what kind of special status did he confer to the Muslim rebel leader and his insurgency?

Press Statements
  • Office of Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
  • 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
  • 05 August 2011

 

  • LAGMAN DEMANDS TRANSPARENCY
  • ON DBP ‘BEHEST LOANS’ WITCH HUNT

 

         Minority Leader and Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman demanded the full disclosure by concerned officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) of the affidavits which the late DBP lawyer Benjamin Pinpin intimated in his suicide letters he was coerced or cajoled to sign “beyond the truth”.

          The names of DBP officials and investigators must also be revealed together with the identities of the reported 20 DBP personnel who were issued “show-cause memos”.

          The concealment of these affidavits would give rise to the presumption that they are kept under wraps because they contain evidence that DBP zealots went overboard in procuring perjured testimony even as such non-disclosure would confirm Pinpin’s statement that he was compelled or enticed to lie.

          Excerpts from Pinpin’s suicide letters indicate that the proximate cause of his suicide was the extreme pressure he was going through and the inordinate remorse he was suffering for signing affidavits which “destroyed my life” and which were the “biggest mistake of my life”.

          These revelations of Pinpin are akin to a dying declaration “made under the consciousness of an impending death” which are admissible evidence as an exception to the hearsay rule pursuant to the Rules of Court.

          A dying man can be presumed to have declared the truth about the circumstances leading to his death.

Press Statements
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Office of the Minority Leader
  • 01 August 2011
  • Mobile No. 09189120137/09166406737

  

        The Minority Bloc in the House of Representatives unanimously decided to boycott the budget briefings and hearings starting today in protest of the discrimination against opposition members in the release of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

         The precursor of the PDAF, the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF), was declared valid and constitutional by the Supreme Court which called the CDF as the “great equalizer” because congressional districts receive the same amounts irrespective of the political affiliations of the incumbents.

         “PDAF allocations are entitlements of constituents and not of individual legislators,” Lagman explained.

         Out of the 34 members of the Minority, 14 have not received any releases for their respective districts, 18 have incomplete releases and only two got their districts’ full allocation for the first half of 2011.

         Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman scored the uneven treatment of Minority members as a divide-and-rule strategy which attempts to drive a wedge within the ranks of the opposition.

         Lagman said that “it is pointless for Minority members to participate in the budget briefings and hearings because after the General Appropriations Act is enacted, allocations are impounded and immobilized.”

        He also added that “no amount of relevant inputs coming from the Minority is considered meaningful once the ascendant Majority decides to approve the budget in full at the behest of the President.”

         Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas, a member of the Nationalista Party who belongs to the Minority, was the only one who attended the briefings of the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) because he was not aware of the Minority’s earlier decision.

Press Statements
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Office of the Minority Leader
  • 30 July 2011
  • Mobile No. 09189120137/09166406737

 

         As Minority Leader, I do not consider it a feat or a silencer to get the full amount of my congressional district’s half-year PDAF allocation after the recent releases of the corresponding Notices of Cash Allocation (NCAs), while many Members of the Minority have zero or incomplete releases for their respective districts’ entitlements.

The First District of Albay rightfully deserves the releases in the same manner as all other districts nationwide are entitled to their own releases.

The uneven treatment of opposition legislators smacks of a “divide-and-rule” strategy reminiscent of the colonial masters by driving a wedge within the ranks of the opposition.

           The Minority as a block demands the full release of the PDAF to all its Members and supports the complaints of some marginalized Members of the majority coalition who are similarly discriminated against.

           If the releases are not made soonest, the Minority shall consider boycotting the budget briefings to be conducted starting August 1 by the Committee on Appropriations or the committee hearings on the 2012 national budget after the general appropriations bill is filed.

           Budget briefings and hearings are exercises in futility and are worthless tapestries if funds are impounded and immobilized after the General Appropriations Act is enacted.