Fireworks at Senate over ‘pork’ witnesses

MANILA, Philippines - Fireworks – instead of bombshells – lit up yesterday’s Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the pork barrel scam as panel chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III berated Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for her failure to present the whistle-blowers in the controversy.

A visibly irritated Guingona accused De Lima of diminishing the authority of the committee and declared the suspension of the fourth public hearing on the pork barrel controversy 15 minutes after it started.

According to Guingona, De Lima assured him last week she would bring the whistle-blowers to yesterday’s hearing.

But De Lima clarified that what she had manifested to Guingona during their meeting was merely her willingness and not her commitment to produce the whistle-blowers.

She explained that based on the Ombudsman Act as well as the rules of procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman, no such exposure for whistle-blowers is allowed “if it will prejudice the disposition of a case before the Office of the Ombudsman” led by Conchita Carpio-Morales.

De Lima said she was also merely asking the committee to “provide the Ombudsman the opportunity to state her position on the matter” since, with the filing of the first batch of complaints, Morales has “assumed jurisdiction over the case.”

“Therefore, she now has the prerogative or the authority to determine whether it would be proper for whistle-blowers who are involved in that case to further elaborate or to further testify on what they already stated in their respective affidavits as submitted to the Ombudsman,” De Lima said.

Guingona disputed De Lima’s position, citing jurisprudence upholding the power of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to compel attendance to its investigations.

He criticized De Lima for allowing the whistle-blowers to be interviewed by the media while refusing to have them appear before the committee.

“And what you have done is unprecedented. Unprecedented. And in my view, you have attempted to undermine and diminish the power of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee. I’m very, very disappointed and I do not agree with your stand,” Guingona told De Lima.

Guingona issued a subpoena – signed by Senate President Franklin Drilon – ordering De Lima to produce whistle-blowers Benhur Luy, Gertrudes Luy, Marina Sula and Merlina Suñas to attend tomorrow’s hearing.

All are former employees of Janet Lim-Napoles, alleged pork barrel scam mastermind.

An earlier subpoena issued to Napoles did not have Drilon’s signature.

Plain misunderstanding

Interviewed by reporters after the hearing, De Lima said it was not her intention to disobey the orders of the committee and that what happened between her and Guingona was simply a misunderstanding.

“There are grounds in the rules of procedure of the ombudsman that she may prevent (the appearance of witnesses in another hearing) if it can prejudice the case and prejudice the safety of the whistle-blowers,” she said. “Theoretically the ombudsman can invoke any of those grounds.”

She said that she wanted to explain her position to Guingona in greater detail during the hearing but was not given the opportunity to do so.

“If I receive a subpoena then I have no choice. Although I would prefer that between now and Thursday, we would already know the position of the ombudsman,” she added.

Asked what her move would be if the Senate and the ombudsman provide conflicting positions on the matter, De Lima said that she would have to study the matter carefully to determine which should prevail.

So far, only Benhur Luy, the principal whistle-blower in the pork barrel scam, has appeared before the Senate to testify about the alleged connivance between Napoles and some lawmakers in skimming billions of pesos from the congressional pork barrel, officially called Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

De Lima said that she had allowed Luy to appear as an exception because he served as a representative voice of all the whistle-blowers.

If ever the other whistle-blowers would appear before the committee in the next hearings, De Lima said that she would strongly advise them against revealing more names other than those included in the plunder and malversation of public funds charges filed with the Office of the Ombudsman last Sept.16.

The 38 individuals named in the complaint included Senators Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, as well as their chiefs of staff and other employees.

Also charged were Napoles herself and at least four former members of the House of Representatives.

Officials and employees of government-owned and controlled corporations, which had served as conduits for the funneling of pork barrel funds into non-government organizations of Napoles, were included in the complaint.

In his Senate testimony, Luy explained how Napoles – a cousin and former boss – had established connections with lawmakers and other officials so her NGOs could get millions of pesos in PDAF.

He said Napoles would often keep her cash haul in some of her many houses, and that he had at one time withdrawn more than P75 million from a bank for Napoles.

Another whistle-blower, Gertrudes, is Benhur’s mother who had served as Napoles’ house helper.

Suñas was an account executive of Napoles, who had also been listed as president of an NGO of the businesswoman.

In her affidavits submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation, Suñas said she saw the endorsement letters of Estrada, Revilla and Enrile that were faxed to their office.

She also claimed that the three senators or their chiefs of staff – Pauline Labayen (Estrada), Richard Cambe (Revilla) and Gigi Reyes (Enrile) – received 50 percent share of the PDAF that ended up in the NGOs of Napoles.

Sula was a janitress before she became accounting clerk for Napoles and later president of one the businesswoman’s NGOs.

Sula, in her affidavit, named a certain Mae Catherine Santos as an alleged agent for the PDAF of Senators Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Loren Legarda.

She also named some government officials and other personalities who occasionally attended parties or special occasions hosted by Napoles.

No disrespect

At Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said De Lima does not deserve a dressing down from the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

“She should not have been treated that way,” Valte said. “We do have to say that the secretary of justice went there in good faith. In our parlance, she didn’t snub the Senate – she showed up, she faced the committee,” Valte said.

She also rebuffed Guingona on his statement that De Lima’s failure to present the whistle-blowers had diminished the authority of the Blue Ribbon committee.

“It was very obvious from her statement that she did not intend to diminish. Had she intended to diminish it, she would not have shown up, but she was there,” Valte said.

But as to questions whether De Lima was right to invoke the rules of the ombudsman on dealing with witnesses under the DOJ’s custody, the Palace said it’s not in a position to decide on the matter.

“Whether or not who is correct when it comes to legal interpretation will not be our function,” she said.

Valte said Guingona’s treatment of De Lima was “quite surprising.” Guingona is a Liberal Party ally of President Aquino.

“The question is not whether or not he is an ally, but it’s really actually the treatment, because she was there, she went there, she appeared in person,” he said.

De Lima, she said, only “respectfully stated her piece that there may be a possible conflict with an existing law that we, in the executive, are also bound to abide by and to execute.”

“We have always cooperated with them, given the fact that the secretary has appeared numerous times not just on this issue, but has also brought the whistle-blower in the last hearing conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on this issue,” Valte said. With Delon Porcalla