EDITORIAL - The real culprits are still called honorable

Everyone seems so titillated by stories of high scandal involving a woman named Janet Lim Napoles, who is reportedly behind a P10 billion pork barrel scam, that the danger is very real the true culprits in the case might just make good their escape.

In this controversy, at least two employees of Napoles have accused her of operating non-existent NGOs through which millions upon millions of pesos in pork barrel funds from congressmen and senators are channeled to ghost projects.

Napoles has denied the allegations, claiming all her money came from proceeds of legitimate businesses and from family inheritance. Her two former employees, who she claimed tried to ask for bribes, are now under the protection of government.

The story has all the elements for exciting reading. To the observant reader, however, there seems to be something terribly amiss in the entire narrative -- and it is the element of conspiracy. To the observant reader, it is clear that Napoles could not have acted alone, granting she is guilty as charged.

Remember, Napoles is supposedly linked only to the fake NGOs. The money was not hers to begin with and could not have dropped on her lap from out of nowhere had not someone -- in all likelihood congressmen and senators -- been in possession or had authority over the money in the first place.

And Napoles could not have had the temerity to approach the congressmen and senators with the devious plan. It has to be the other way around, meaning the plan had to be hatched and the action had to be initiated by scheming congressmen and senators.

It is these people who are supposed to know the ins and outs of how to manipulate the flow of money in the form of pork barrel funds in a way that it eventually drops into their own pockets. They are the persons who have access to these funds, not Napoles.

In effect, Napoles could just be the launderer. It is the congressmen and senators who brought in the dirty laundry. Where and how they got the laundry -- that is the bigger story. Yet, despite some of them having been named, not a finger has been raised against these honorable gentlemen.

On the other hand, it is only Napoles who is being made to go through the wringer, which is unfair considering she and her family have already been convicted in a trial by publicity while the real culprits are allowed to enjoy a certain degree of immunity, and continue to be called honorable.