BOSTON - By sending powerful officials to jail, including a former president and three senators, the administration has shown its commitment to the “straight path,” President Aquino said yesterday in a speech at Boston College here.
“We used to think that the powerful and well-connected were beyond the long arm of the law. That is no longer the case. The straight and righteous path for these people will lead straight to jail,” Aquino told a crowd of mostly members of academe as well as US officials including Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg.
It was the first time that Aquino made public reference to the arrest of senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. as an achievement in his anti-corruption effort. The three are in detention for plunder in connection with the pork barrel scam.
“Since 2010, a chief justice was impeached for considering himself above the law, and is now facing charges in the regular courts. A former president and three incumbent senators are in detention, all of them facing charges of plunder,” he said.
Former President and now Pampanga congresswoman is under hospital arrest while on trial for plunder. The three senators are detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center at Camp Crame.
In 2012, the Senate convened as an impeachment court found then Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona guilty of betraying public trust for failing to disclose all his wealth in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth or SALN.
Aquino also boasted of having steered the economy to sustainable growth after a “lost decade under the previous administration.”
From an average 4.3 percent “consumer-driven” growth during the Arroyo administration, the country’s economy in terms of gross democratic product (GDP) rose 7.2 percent under the current leadership, Aquino said.
“This is why, since taking office in 2010, we have worked to foster sustainability, by rebalancing our economy towards investments,” he told his Boston College audience.
“The good news is that capital is indeed coming in at an unprecedented rate,” he said.
“Forty-two percent of all approved investments by our PEZA (Philippine Export Zone Authority) came only within the four years of our administration, while the other 58 percent took 15 years to accumulate,” he pointed out.
“Since 2010, our economy has been growing at an average of 6.3 percent, and last year, we posted an economic growth of 7.2 percent, making us one of the fastest growing economies in the world,” Aquino added.
He also mentioned the Philippines’ 33-place jump from 85th in 2010 to 52nd in 2014 in the World Economic Forum Competitiveness Report touted as the “biggest improvement by any country in that timeframe.”
“The three major credit ratings agencies Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s also upgraded us to investment grade in 2013, with continuously positive evaluations coming at a time of conservatism from ratings agencies, in response to a turbulent global economy,” he said.
Checkup
Meanwhile, Estrada is set to undergo a medical checkup tomorrow at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan.
The Sandiganbayan granted his request yesterday that he be allowed to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine what was causing his shoulder pains.
“I am experiencing pain on my left shoulder. Actually in both shoulders,” Estrada said in an interview after his bail hearing at the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division.
He said he has been feeling such pain since last year but it appears to have worsened since his detention .
“But don’t worry, it will only take two to three hours. I would like to thank the members of the prosecution panel for not opposing my going to the hospital. And I would also like to thank the court for granting such request,” he told reporters.
Estrada said he wants the procedure done at the CSMC because there is no equipment available at the PNP General Hospital, which is also within Camp Crame.
He said the CSMC, where he underwent a similar checkup before, is also nearer to his detention facility than any other hospital.
“It’s already radiating in my neck,” he said, describing the pain, adding that he just wants to have it checked and hopefully rule out anything serious.
He also accused pork barrel scam main whistle-blower Benhur Luy of lying in his testimony during direct examination.
“He’s a liar. There were many inconsistencies in Benhur’s testimony,” he said, referring to how the prosecution witness had accused the senator of signing an endorsement letter at a party and how middlemen reportedly received kickbacks on his behalf.
“I never knew him up to this date. How can he let me sign a document in a party? I never sign any documents during a party. Maybe that’s not the appropriate time for me to sign any document,” he stressed.
Estrada also said Luy’s testimony that actor Mat Ranillo, Pauline Labayen and Ruby Tuason had transacted with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles for him is not true.
“First of all, I don’t know Mat, I never dealt with him much less Ruby Tuason,” he said.
“That’s why I am waiting for Ruby Tuason to be placed on the witness stand,” he said.
“I’ve never transacted with Mrs. Napoles. If Benhur Luy was insinuating that I was transacting with Mrs. Napoles about commissions that’s not true,” he added.
He said he expected to see Luy’s alleged lies exposed in a cross-examination.
Sense of propriety lost
As Aquino was proudly declaring his anti-corruption achievements abroad, the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) was lamenting what it called the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s loss of its sense of propriety with the suspension of its investigation into the Malampaya Fund and Globe Asiatique.
“Actually, I find the cancellation of these vital investigations troubling and hard to understand. If the issue concerns the administration, all kinds of excuses will be made up to prevent hearing these, while if it concerns the critics…” UNA secretary-general Toby Tiangco said yesterday.
The Blue Ribbon committee headed by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III announced over the weekend the postponement of the probe, noting that Commission on Audit Chairman Grace Pulido-Tan and special audit team leader Susan Garcia could not make it to the Sept. 25 hearing because they were on official business trip.
“Are the resource persons from the Commission on Audit (COA) the only invited guests to determine the truth about the anomaly in Malampaya?
“The Senate has lost all sense of propriety. They should stop pretending. Their priority is political demolition against Vice President Jejomar Binay. They don’t care about important issues like the Malampaya Fund anomaly and the misuse of Pag-Ibig fund,” Tiangco said.
He said the senators were employing “delaying tactics to bury the issues” on the Malampaya Fund and Globe Asiatique.
“They must now be called the ‘Senate Yellow Ribbon committee,’ whose primary goal is to protect the LP (Liberal Party) and its allies and demolish the opposition,” Tiangco said.
Help from civil society
For Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, civil society groups should help in the monitoring of the use of public funds by officials.
Roxas made the appeal during the regional launching of the Koalisyon ng Mamamayan para sa Reporma (KOMPRe) at the De La Salle University Science Institute Campus in Bacoor, Cavite.
He explained that the national government allots a total of P20 billion for local government projects through the Grassroots Participatory Process (GPP).
Roxas said the amount is divided among the 1,600 local government units P30 million for each city and P12 million for each municipality.
“You’re the boss, you choose your projects and we fund those projects,” he said.
He said civil society groups and the public should pay more attention to project details and expenses. Michael Pinongbayan, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jose Rodel Clapano