Miriam raring to quiz Napoles in pork scam, expensive handbags

MANILA, Philippines - MANILA, Philippines - “What’s the most expensive handbag?”

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago wants to ask this question to pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim Napoles once the latter appears before the Senate Blue Ribbon hearing on the pork barrel scam.

Santiago is also raring to  interview the whistleblowers who implicated  Napoles and several lawmakers with  the multi-billion pork barrel scam. 

“We want to catch them at plunder because that’s what they really committed,” Santiago said at a press briefing at the Senate on Wednesday.

Napoles and her family have been criticized by netizens for their lavish  lifestyle, highlighted by partying and expensive handbags.

Sidelined by her chronic fatigue syndrome, Santiago minced no words against  several of her colleagues who were being implicated in the pork barrel scam. “Die! Eat, blank and Die!,” Santiago said.

It was Santiago’s first time to appear at the Senate Wednesday, presiding over the hearing of the Commission on Appointments, confirming the nominations of the Foreign Affairs department. 

For the senators who were not dragged into the controversy, Santiago batted for the abolition of Congress and the remaining senators to commit harakiri instead.

“Abolish the Congress.  Commit harakiri.  You owe it to the Filipino people. We should all wear our Filipino robes and bow in front of TV and harakiri ourselves,” Santiago said.

“The whole system is just so bad that’s why people get sick. I think this is the country with the most sick people in the whole world.  (And) we continue to go to office as if nothing happened,” Santiago added.

"We are really, really sick or morally sick, mentally sick. The higher the positions, the higher their mental sickness,”  said Santiago, explaining that the abolition of Congress needs changing of the Constitution.

Santiago  said a plunder case against lawmakers can be filed even without Napoles becoming a state witness.

She sees it proper that the government panel composed of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice (DOJ)-National Bureau of Investigation to file charges against the senators who were linked to have misused their pork barrel based on witnesses' accounts, and special audit report from 2007 to 2009.

Santiago said Napoles cannot be made state witness because  she does not seem to be the least guilty in relation to the testimonies of whistleblowers led by Benhur Luy.

If Napoles will be pinning down higher officials in government, Santiago said then maybe the Department of Justice will consider her as state witness.

“If she will do that, I will agree that she will be the least guilty…So far in the  hands of the DOJ, particularly the NBI, we have no evidence,” Santiago said.

“The Penal Code is very strict on the rule of making an individual a state witness, because she would be absolved of wrongdoings.  The charges against a state witness will mean the dropping of the charges against her,” the senator said.

“I cannot grasp how much her money is, which is so galactic,” Santiago said.

Santiago said Napoles can face plunder because she is in a conspiracy, which provides that the guilt of one is the guilt of all.

The moment that the judge issues a warrant of arrest, a senator who would be charged for plunder in relation to the pork barrel case will be detained without bail.