Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic’’ Remulla revealed on Thursday, Jan. 15, that he and his brother Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla were offered P2 billion by a congressman and a contractor in exchange for clearing them from any accountability in connection with the anomalous flood control projects.

“Opo times two (bribe offers) na po. Isang grupong Visayas Mindanao, isang grupong Luzon (The offers were made twice. One group from Mindanao and the other from Luzon),’’ Remulla stated.

Initially, Remulla said the Luzon group made the offer but three weeks later the Visayas-Mindanao group made a similar proposition, which he promptly rejected.

“Eh gusto nila tulungan namin sila sa kaso nila, matanggal sila sa listahan, bigyan ng bail, yun ang mga hinihingi nila. Hindi talaga puwede eh (They wanted us to help them with their case, with their removal from the list, be given bail, that is what they are asking for which really cannot be done),’’ he explained.

He insisted that no arrests were made since they can easily deny their bribe attempts which can later be dismissed as “hearsay” because these were not direct offers.

“Deniable kasi ang ginagawa nila. May deniability sila sa mga pinapadaan nilang tao. Usually mga kaibigan nila yan, idedeny nila lang yan, wala kaming sinabing ganyan (What they did is deniable. They have deniability since the offer was coursed through go betweens. Usually, they are their friends. They will just deny it, and say we made such no offers),’’ Remulla lamented.

Remulla also clarified of not reaching out to the concerned congressman and contractor after the incidents, as he did not personally know them and such actions are outside of DILG chief’s functions.

“Number one hindi ko ho sila kilala. Number two gagawin ko lang yan (reach out to them) on official functions. I don’t have enough grounds to prosecute the case dahil nga magiging hearsay ang offer sa akin (First and foremost I do not know them. Second, I will only do that in official functions. I don’t have enough grounds to prosecute the case since it will only be perceived that the offer was merely hearsay),’’ Remulla asserted.

Remulla admitted that his Ombudsman brother was fully aware of the twin offers, which the latter just laughed off while questioning if they think so little of the Remullas.

The DILG chief also pointed out the decision to come out in public about the P2 billion bribe attempt was made to discourage others from making the same move.

“Alam na po (Ombudsman) pero kaya ko nilalabas yan, puwede ko naman hindi ilabas eh pero gusto ko ilabas yan para tumigil na. Huwag na sila sumubok kasi wala talagang mangyayari kahit anong salapi pa iharap niyo sa amin eh wala talagang mangyayari (The Ombudsman already know about the offers but the reason I made it public even if I can keep it secretly to put an end to these bribe tries. They should not even try since it will only go for naught no matter how much bribe money they offer),’’ Remulla continued.