Senate wants to summon Napoles, whistle-blowers

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate intends to summon businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam, along with the whistle-blowers who exposed the issue, to appear in the next hearings.

So far only Commission on Audit (COA) Chairman Grace Pulido Tan has testified before the committee during its first hearing on the pork barrel scam last Thursday.

Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said the next hearing on Sept. 5 would still focus on the COA’s audit report on the use of the PDAF from 2007 to 2009.

COA director Susan Garcia is expected to represent Tan, who begged off from the hearing because of a prior commitment overseas.

Guingona said a representative of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) was also invited to attend the hearing.

Sen. Francis Escudero has asked the committee to invite Napoles, her cousin Benhur Luy and the other whistle-blowers to attend the hearings.

This is on top of Escudero’s earlier manifestations to summon the officials of the National Agribusiness Corp., Technology Resource Center, National Livelihood Development Corp., Zamboanga del Norte Rubber Estate Corp. and the Philippine Forest Corp.

He said these firms were “commonly appearing as conduits for PDAF releases to seemingly favored NGOs.”

Escudero also asked the secretaries of agriculture, social welfare and development, and DBM be invited to future hearings.

He added the officials of C.C. Barredo Publishing House to his list of resource persons that he wants to appear in future hearings.

He said the company appeared to be a common denominator for several of the activities of the bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) linked to Napoles.

Guingona and Escudero though admitted the difficulty of getting Napoles to appear before the Senate inquiry since this decision would have to be made by the court.

Napoles is facing charges of illegal detention and has been ordered by the Makati City court to be detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna for security considerations.

Guingona agreed that Napoles and the whistle-blowers should appear before the hearings to allow the Senate committee to have “the whole story.”

During the hearing last Thursday, Guingona said the committee would issue subpoenas for documents that would serve as proof that some legislators endorsed Napoles-linked NGOs as recipients of their PDAF.

The COA was the one that secured the endorsement letters during its audit but Tan said the documents were already turned over to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman to aid them in their investigation into the pork barrel scam.

“We are trying to trace where in the process of releasing the PDAF does the opportunity to divert the fund comes in. The chain of procedures in the release of the PDAF is implemented to ensure accountability,” Guingona said.

“We learned… there are instances where key procedures were bypassed to ensure that specific NGOs be the beneficiary of the PDAF. We must determine whether this action is illegal. It may be irregular, but we must determine whether the law was violated,” he added.

Tan said COA was able to secure confirmations from Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile and Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Gregorio Honasan II regarding the signatures on the letters, which were either their own or their representatives’.

She said Sen. Jinggoy Estrada did not respond to the COA’s request for his confirmation.

According to Tan, the usual authorized signatories for the letters were either the chiefs of staff or their deputies.

The senators involved cannot be compelled to attend the hearings but when asked if their chiefs of staff and other employees could be invited, Guingona said they would allow them.

The congressmen who were linked to pork barrel fund scam are not likely to appear before the Senate hearing.

While private citizens and government officials can be subpoenaed to the investigation, the Senate cannot use its coercive power on members of the House of Representatives.

The Senate cannot even compel any of its members to appear in its inquiry.

The two chambers of Congress are bound by tradition not to subpoena or investigate each other’s members.

This practice is what lawmakers call inter-parliamentary or inter-chamber courtesy.

Nothing in the rules, however, prevents each chamber from inviting any of the other house’s members. Alternatively, a member being linked to an irregularity or scandal can volunteer to appear in an investigation.

This was what then Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte did in 2010, when he voluntarily testified before the Senate to deny his alleged links to jueteng operators in his province.

There are more than 200 former and incumbent House members linked by the COA to the pork barrel scam.

Of the P6.2 billion in pork barrel funds that the COA found to have ended up with 82 NGOs, including 10 associated with Napoles, four to five senators accounted for about P1.5 billion. The rest came from congressmen.

The COA said most of the NGOs were bogus and most of the supposed projects they undertook were non-existent.

Congressmen would have their own time to clear things up if the House eventually decides to conduct its own probe.

As of now, House leaders are not disposed to start their own inquiry, preferring to let state agencies finish their investigation.

On the other hand, a group of journalists are calling for an independent probe on the pork barrel scam.

The Association of Philippine Journalists/Samahang Plaridel is calling for the creation of an independent truth commission to ensure a fair, impartial and exhaustive investigation into the issue.

In a resolution signed last Thursday at the 163rd birth anniversary of Marcelo H. del Pilar, the group urged Malacañang to issue an executive order forming an independent truth commission to investigate the use and misuse of public funds of government and submit their findings and recommendations within six months. – With Jess Diaz