No proof of Romualdez ‘utilizing’ Atayde to cowl up flood management scandal

The Discayas implicated each Atayde and Romualdez within the flood management scandal, naming them as among the many politicians who allegedly demanded bribes associated to flood management tasks

Declare: Former Home Speaker Martin Romualdez is masking up his personal position within the flood management scandal by focusing public consideration on the alleged involvement of Quezon Metropolis 1st District Consultant Juan Carlos “Arjo” Atayde, in accordance with proof launched by the actor-turned-politician.

Score: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The video containing the declare was posted on October 28 and has garnered 581 likes and 6,700 views on YouTube. It’s also being shared on numerous social media websites and teams, together with Fb. 

Within the video, the narrator says, “Arjo Atayde ginagamit lang panakip butas sa difficulty ni Martin Romualdez.”

(Arjo Atayde is simply getting used to cowl up Martin Romualdez’s difficulty.)

Textual content on the video’s thumbnail reads: “Maine Mendoza, Arjo Atayde ginagamit ni Romualdez. Atayde nilabas ang ebidensya.“

(Maine Mendoza, Arjo Atayde [are being] utilized by Romualdez. Atayde launched proof.)

The YouTube channel, “JAY GUEVARRA TV,” has over 491,000 subscribers and has been constantly posting vlogs concerning the authorities and numerous social points. 

The video was posted amid the flood management scandal, wherein each Atayde and Romualdez have been accused of receiving kickbacks in anomalous flood management tasks. The narrator alleges that Romualdez is searching for to cowl up his personal position within the flood management mess through the use of Atayde’s case as a political diversionary tactic.

The information: Atayde has not launched proof supposedly exhibiting that Romualdez is “utilizing” him to divert consideration away from his personal alleged involvement within the flood management mess. The video doesn’t present any proof to help this declare.

The video merely presents the narrator’s personal commentary on the flood management difficulty. Each lawmakers have been implicated within the scandal after authorities contractors Sarah and Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya named Romualdez and Atayde as among the many politicians who allegedly demanded commissions from their corporations. (READ: Congress, contractors, battle, corruption: An inventory of Rappler exclusives)

In a social media story on September 8, Atayde denied the allegations, stating that he “by no means handled the Discayas” and that he has “by no means used [his] place for private achieve.”

Pictures obtained by Rappler, nevertheless, confirmed Atayde showing to pose for images with the Discayas. Atayde’s spouse, Eat Bulaga host Maine Mendoza, publicly defended her husband, stating that the picture exhibiting him with the Discayas was taken out of context.

In the meantime, Romualdez additionally refuted the allegations and known as the couple’s claims “malicious and false.” The previous speaker stated, “If anybody invoked my identify, they did so with out my information and with out my consent. I’ve by no means, and I’ll by no means, settle for a bribe from anyone.”

Probe ongoing: In September, the Impartial Fee for Infrastructure (ICI) was shaped to research alleged corruption within the authorities’s flood management tasks.

Romualdez appeared earlier than the ICI on October 14, saying his assembly was about “sharing information [and] proof, and [not] simply political noise and hypothesis.”

In the meantime, Atayde stated in a press release on October 27 that there have been no “ghost” tasks in his district following the Quezon Metropolis authorities’s findings of a minimum of 35 lacking flood management works throughout town. In response to Atayde’s workplace, 5 of the seven “lacking” flood management works in his district are accomplished, whereas two are suspended.

Debunked: Rappler has beforehand debunked a number of false claims involving Atayde, Romualdez, and the Discayas: 

– Reinnard Balonzo/Rappler.com 

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