EDITORIAL - Verification

Verify first, talk later. This should be a guiding principle for the Department of Justice, which is at the center of a firestorm over a statement submitted by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the accused mastermind of the pork barrel scam. After announcing that Napoles had pinned down Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., DOJ officials clammed up on the rest of the lawmakers implicated in the statement, explaining that certain points still had to be verified.

All accusations in the pork barrel scam at this point are just that: accusations. It is the Sandiganbayan that will determine guilt, based on cases to be filed not by the DOJ but the Office of the Ombudsman.

Last year more senators and about 180 former and incumbent members of the House of Representatives, among them administration allies, were implicated in the scam, not by unreliable witnesses but by the Commission on Audit. The COA findings were announced following a thorough probe of pork barrel utilization during certain years in the Arroyo and Aquino administrations. Indictments, however, have so far focused only on the three opposition senators, leading to accusations of selective prosecution.

After the announcement that Napoles had submitted a new statement and wanted to turn state witness, there are complaints not only about selective prosecution but also about trial by innuendo, with all lawmakers tarred by the incomplete disclosure by the DOJ. Former senator Panfilo Lacson, known for shooting first and asking questions later, added to the confusion with his own story about tapped phone conversations and an incomplete list of lawmakers Napoles has supposedly named.

Unconfirmed reports that Napoles has pointed to a ranking administration official as the real brains of the scam have fueled speculation that the DOJ and Malacañang are sanitizing her statement before baring it to the public. DOJ officials explain that they merely want to first verify several points in the affidavit. The verification should have been done before that first excited announcement was made about the statement. Now the wait for the rest of the statement is threatening the credibility of the case.