Liar, liar

“YOU CAN call me fat and ugly but not a liar because I will fight back.”
Fat and ugly, still-putative provincial administrator Atty. Vivian Dabu, is not. At least in the eyes of the romanticist Ram Mercado, if not in the heart of the enamored you-know-who.
Dabu bristled at Senior Board Member Crisostomo Garbo for calling her a “liar” in a privilege speech on Monday: “We did not promise or say we were withdrawing or to issue another ordinance agreeing to the release of the P10,000 bonus… Lawyer Dabu is a liar and she has always been.” So was Garbo quoted as saying.
The gentleman from Duquit, Mabalacat was himself incensed at Dabu’s revelations over local television that on December 28 three board members, Garbo included, met with Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio and agreed to withdraw the resolution granting P20,000 Christmas bonus to the Capitol employees and replace it with one favorable to the stand of the governor, to wit: P10,000 across-the-board cash gift, any other P10,000 to be based on a performance evaluation scheme.
No, the Capitol employees were not betrayed, no agreement whatsoever was reached with the governor. So Garbo insisted.
Sun-Star Pampanga reported that the “two other board members allegedly present in the meeting corroborated Garbo’s disclosures and said they too never said about withdrawing and issuing another ordinance contrary to Dabu’s claims.” So that would make Garbo’s talk on the Dabu lie stick.
Garbo was even cited by the daily as having denied any “December 28 meeting last year tackling on the bonus issue.”
Which Dabu countered with a confirmation that the meeting was held on December 28 at the Governor’s Office “upon the request of the board members led by Garbo.”
“Ibinalik namin ang ordinance based on the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) na nagsabing kung hindi iyun ang request ng governor, dapat ibalik. Hindi ganoon ang request namin. Ang request namin ay P10,000 so we returned it without action.” So was Dabu quoted, and “She said Garbo told them the PB could not withdraw the ordinance as it would be the august body which will appear in bad light.”
“Wala ang kamalian sa amin. Sinunod namin ang proseso. Merong hindi sumunod ng proseso pero hindi kami. At hindi ako nagsinungaling at hindi ako magsisinungaling at tatayuan ko kung ano ang napag-usapan namin.” So firmly stood Dabu.
A prank – to me, that was all there was to this supposed meeting between Panlilio and Dabu on one hand and Garbo and the other board members on the other. The date was a dead giveaway – December 28. Ninos Inocentes, the Filipino version of April Fools’ Day.
As Dabu is not fat and ugly, subjectively now, so she can’t be a liar too. The non sequitur I shall allow, in deference to my friend Ram and you-know-who. And that was supposed to be that.
But came one Jenina Pineda, supervising and management specialist of the DBM to the SP on Monday too putting some truth to Garbo’s claim on the Dabu lie.
In a letter to DBM Director Elisa Salon dated December 29, Dabu said it was upon the advice of the agency and Pineda that the “Governor returned an ordinance to the PB and without action and merely taking note thereof.”
The same thing Dabu told Sun-Star Pampanga as cited in some previous paragraph here.
Testified Pineda before the SP: “I did not tell (Dabu) to do that. Besides, I was quoted through a phone conversation, which is not the official statement of the DBM. It is usual practice that we entertain questions of local government officials on budgetary matters but we always impress on them that the official stand of the DBM will always the one that is signed by the regional director.”
Pineda furthered that she also texted Dabu but her opinions were “in her personal capacity” and did not represent the DBM.
An aghast Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao could only utter: “Very disturbing of Dabu to quote mere phone conversations and use these as legal bases for action on a very critical issue.”
There lies the truth.