P-Noy wants ‘pork’ scam conviction within his term

MANILA, Philippines - A conviction before the end of his term for anyone who would face trial for the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam would be good enough for President Aquino.

“I would rather see a conviction under my term,” Aquino told Palace reporters, but added he was “realistic” enough not to expect much.

“I’m told that for one case to be finished will take around three to five years,” he said in an interview after announcing the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

“But of course, we’re realistic. That’s part of what we are trying to do – judicial reform,” he pointed out.

“So, at the very minimum, cases will be filed – and that is my expectation. And I will be on their case, hopefully, especially for those under the executive (department),” he said, noting that the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit are “independent, constitutional bodies.”

But Aquino said it would be prudent to make an appeal to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and COA chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan to accelerate the process of investigation as well as the filing of charges. “We want to have a clear example that crime does not pay,” he pointed out.

He said he has directed the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council or IAAGCC composed of the Ombudsman, COA, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “work together to accelerate the process, from investigation, to prosecution, to putting people behind bars, and even to asset recovery.”

“My directives to all agencies and members of government are clear: Extend your full aid and cooperation so that the truth may be uncovered, and so that the guilty may be held accountable,” he stressed.

Aquino said he has “utmost confidence in the integrity and impartiality” of Morales, Pulido-Tan and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

“I know that they will be impartial and just. They represent the great strides we have made in restoring public faith and confidence in the institutions they lead,” he said in a televised speech.

Not COA’s fault

Tan, meanwhile, said her auditors were not to blame for supposed errors in a COA report detailing PDAF misuse from 2007 to 2009.

“There is nothing to correct in our report, it was based on documents from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) itself,” Tan told The STAR yesterday.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad earlier said COA had wrongly attributed to then Compostela Valley 1st District congressman now Vice Gov. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora some P3 billion in pork disbursement.

The DBM’s own record was also the basis for COA findings that a non-lawmaker named Luis Abalos, who turned out to be former congressman and now Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos, had also received P20 million in pork barrel from 2007 to 2009. 

Abad, who is forming a committee that will review the contents of the special audit, admitted that such error is to be blamed on encoding or typing mistakes

“The DBM acknowledged its error. Besides, these do not affect the integrity of our findings because the P3 billion listed under Way Kurat was not included in the VILP (various infrastructure including local projects) we audited,” Tan said.

She pointed out that COA had asked the DBM to comment on the draft report as standard operating procedure before the final copy was released last week.

“I asked our auditors to double check while I was reviewing the report and got floored with the amount reported, I couldn’t believe it,” Tan noted.

“We got the figure from the matrix that they (DBM) gave us,” she said.

The 135-page COA report revealed how P6.156 billion worth of PDAF from 12 senators and more than 180 congressmen ended up in NGOs or foundations from 2007 to 2009. At least 10 of the NGOs have been linked to fugitive businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Former House deputy speaker and now Zamboanga City Mayor Ma. Isabel Climaco-Salazar also described as incorrect COA  allegation that she had an over allocation of P8 million. She also said she was able to bring more or less P2 billion worth of projects and programs to her district.

“While this system (PDAF) is far from perfect, I believe that this controversy could have been avoided had the concerned implementing agencies properly performed their tasks of accrediting NGOs and monitoring the project implementations to ensure that no dubious NGOs are accredited or no ghost projects exist,” Salazar said.

Evidence strong

Meanwhile, a lawyer of the whistleblowers in the pork barrel scam said evidence they have gathered would be enough to put Napoles and her cohorts behind bars.

But lawyer Levi Baligod declined to identify the lawmakers allegedly involved in the pork scam. Baligod and four of the six whistleblowers spoke at a forum yesterday at St. Scholastica’s College upon an invitation from civil society group Pagbabago led by Sister Mary John Mananzan

Mananzan described the pork barrel scam as the “the worst scam in the history of our country since the Marcos regime.”

Getrudes Luy, mother of main whistleblower Benhur Luy, recounted how she was tasked to receive Napoles’ “bags of money” and pile them up in a bath tub.

Another whistleblower Merlina Suñas, meanwhile, narrated how millions were delivered to Napoles in “cash.”

Baligod described the whistleblowers as “six ordinary people” whose testimonies can “jolt the government.”

“Our people are cold, homeless... if the money went to them they would not be suffering,” Mananzan said.

In her opening speech, Mananzan reminded the audience to be vigilant. “We cannot sit back in complacency and say we are not affected because we are. We are all potential perpetrators of corruption,” she said. With Jess Diaz, Aie Balagtas See, Christina Mendez, Jose Rodel Clapano, Roel  Pareño, Michael Punongbayan, Aurea Calica