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and
that their constituents deserve to know what they are planning
to do with the money.
The
governor denied money changed hands during the breakfast meeting
at the Palace together with other governors and some local
officials.
Aumentado
said "the only incentive" he brought home from the
said meeting was the president's issuance of Administrative
Order 201 urging other governors to follow the Bohol experience
in fighting the insurgency problem and pursuing peace.
The
governor likewise delivered his valedictory address during
the breakfast meeting as he formally relinquished the presidency
of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP),
the umbrella organization of governors, mayors and other local
officials.
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Second
district Rep. Roberto Cajes said, "I left right
after [the] breakfast [meeting] since I have to report
to the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET)
which holds en banc hearings every Thursday at exactly
9 am, [of which I am] a member.
Then
I had to rush to the airport with Rep. Edgar Chatto
(1st District, Bohol) and Rep. Adam Relson Jala (3rd
District, Bohol) for the presidential visit early Friday
in Bohol."
Pres. Arroyo inaugurated the controversial P3.6 billion
Bayongan Dam in San Miguel town Friday morning.
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Rep.
Cajes added "I will do a Panlilio if given money."
Rep.
Chatto said "I was not aware of any giving of gifts or
release of SAROs for projects while in the Palace."
Rep.
Jala said he "left the breakfast meeting at Malacañang
early as I had to catch up with my flight for Bohol at 10
am that day."
Rep.
Chatto said that like the two other Bohol solons, he was also
in hurry to leave the Malacañang breakfast meeting
to catch with his flight back to the province to make preparations
for the presidential visit early the following day.
According
to Rep. Chatto, Pres. Arroyo came late for the breakfast meeting,
hence he did not wait for the meeting to be finished and left.
"Bohol
congressmen were there briefly for breakfast but did not stay
long because we need to be in Congress to manifest our presence
for the morning budget plenary session before rushing to the
airport to catch up with our flight," Chatto explained.
The
first district solon added that they made sure to be here
in the province for the president's inauguration of Bayongan
Dam "hence, the urgency to leave ahead of the others."
According
to Aumentado, the president made Bohol an example of her new
"paradigm for peace" in striking at the roots of
the insurgency problem.
This
new paradigm employs not just the hard power of military might,
when needed, but more importantly, the soft power of our growing
economy.
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