Pro-Aquino solons wash hands off impeachment 'intimidation' text

Allies of President Benigno Aquino III in the House of Representatives belied Sunday a supposed attempt to intimidate lawmakers into voting for the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez on Monday, or risk losing their pork barrel funds. House majority leader Neptali Gonzales II branded as a “disinformation campaign" a supposed text message by Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya threatening “zero" pork barrel for lawmakers who will not vote for the impeachment. “Kahapon natanggap ko ang text na yan," Gonzales said in an interview on dzBB radio Sunday. “Pina-verify (ni Speaker Belmonte) sa akin kung totoo. Tinawagan ko si Jun Abaya, he has denied it, di siya ang source noon." (I received that text message Saturday. House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. had me verify it and I called Jun Abaya who has denied being the source of the text message.) Gonzales added, “I can only surmise kung di sa kanya galing yan there must be a conscious effort magkaroon ng disinformation campaign na pagalitin ang congressman at yan ang nangyayari ngayon (if the text message did not come from Abaya, then there must be a conscious effort to launch a disinformation campaign to anger congressmen and that’s what is happening now)." The supposed text message claimed that congressmen who will vote "no" or abstain from or be absent during the voting on impeachment "will get 0, as in zero" Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or more commonly known as pork barrel. Gonzales said the articles of impeachment are to be sponsored before the plenary of the House on Monday. “When we had a caucus, malinaw sa majority kung tatalakayin bukas yan ang decision namin (it was clear to the majority bloc that we will tackle the articles of impeachment on Monday)," he said. He said they need at least 95 votes to ensure Gutierrez's impeachment. On the other hand, Gonzales remained hopeful they can muster a quorum on Monday so they can tackle the issue. “Ang aking pagasa palagi kaming may quorum (I hope we can muster a quorum on Monday)," he said. The impeachment complaint against the Ombudsman is scheduled to be put to a vote in plenary on Monday or Tuesday. – MRT, GMA News