MikeLigalig.com

By Kit Bagaipo
Bohol Chronicle

Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado and congressmen Edgar Chatto, Roberto Cajes and Adam Relson Jala denied having received money during a breakfast meeting in Malacañang on Thursday last week.

Aumentado urged fellow governors and the congressmen who said they received cash gifts during a meeting in Malacañang to return the money.

The governor also challenged them to identify the persons who handed out the cash.

"If they think it is bribe money, then they should return it," said Aumentado during his weekly radio program "The Governor Reports" last Friday.

Aumentado categorically denied having known of the alleged cash distribution during a breakfast meeting at the Palace on Thursday last week.

"If I was given the money, I would have returned it," Aumentado said.
Aumentado said he left the meeting to catch a flight back to Bohol right after delivering his valedictory address as outgoing president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP).
He said he did not even wait for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to show up for the meeting, as it was supposedly exclusive for lawmakers allied with the administration.

"But in fairness to the Bohol solons, they were also in a rush to catch a flight back to Bohol" for the Presidential visit early the following day, Aumentado said.

IN A RUSH TO LEAVE

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.

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.

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