Trillanes to slap Teo, Tulfo brothers with plunder raps over P60-M DOT ad

“I intend to file a plunder case against Tulfo siblings in relation to the 60M DOT ad controversy,” Trillanes said on Monday, July 30. (File photo: Senate of the Philippines/Facebook)

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said he will slap former Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo and her brothers, Ben and Erwin Tulfo, with plunder charges over the P60-million advertisement controversy involving Department of Tourism (DOT), government-owned People’s Television Network Inc. (PTNI), and Bitag Media Unlimited Inc. (BMUI).

“I intend to file a plunder case against Tulfo siblings in relation to the 60M DOT ad controversy,” Trillanes said on Monday, July 30.

His remarks came after Ben Tulfo, chief executive officer (CEO) of BMUI, announced that he would not return the P60 million money paid to them by the government for advertisement placements on “Kilos Pronto,” a news magazine show on PTV-4 which features Ben, Erwin, and Alex Santos.

“Sa mga nagsasabing isauli ang pera at hinihintay daw ang 60-M, mamuti na mga mata niyo! Wala kaming isasauli! Sa mga nagsasabing ilegal at nangulimbat kami, eh ‘di sampahan niyo kami ng kaso, tutal nandyan naman ang COA (Commission on Audit) at Ombudsman (To those saying that we should return the money and are waiting for the P60-million, may your eyes turn white! We have nothing to return! To those saying what we did was illegal and we stole the money, sue us since there is the COA and the Ombudsman)!” Ben Tulfo said in a Facebook post on July 26, Thursday.

Tulfo insisted that there was no irregularity in the airing of the DOT advertisements, saying that they have all the contracts and documents to prove that what they did was legal.

Trillanes, in his statement called on the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to act on his resolution seeking an inquiry into the issue “so we could determine the magnitude of corruption, specifically, how much more of the people’s money was squandered by the previous leadership.”

In an audit report on the DOT for 2017, the COA found out that Teo may be liable for alleged conflict of interest over the contract.

Of the P120 million project, the COA said, 75 percent or P89.9 million went to “Kilos Pronto” program.

“Considering that the DOT Secretary and the producer of ‘Kilos Pronto’ are siblings, there is a possible conflict of interest, which may be a violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,” the report read.

However, Teo denied this, saying that it was PTNI or PTV-4 that decided on what program the ads would be placed.

“Ang contract po was between PTV-4 and DOT because iyong request po ni Presidente [Rodrigo Duterte] (The contract was between PTV-4 and DOT because the President’s request) is we support the government station,” Teo said in May.

“Wala na po akong pakialam kung ilalagay nila sa kapatid ko (It is not my concern if they put it on my brother’s program). There is no conflict of interest because at the end of the day, the contract was between PTV-4 and DOT,” she added.

Teo stepped down from her post in May amid the DOT ad controversy. She was then replaced by former Agriculture undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat.