Keeping Track of PDAF Scam

CHEERS TO ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol for a report that looked into the slow progress in the investigation of lawmakers implicated in the pork barrel scandal and the failure by authorities so far to take action against other legislators.

TV Patrol’s report on December 9 followed up on the statement made by Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Alex Quiroz in a November hearing in the anti-graft court. “But according to the state witness, (there are) more than three senators and, of course, more than five congressman and yet their cases are still sleeping,” Quiroz said. Earlier, a National Bureau of Investigation official admitted that there are other groups and personalities involved in the misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) apart from alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napolesfake nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

The TV Patrol follow-up report came at a time when the alleged pork-barrel scandal has been eased out of the news media by other reports, particularly election-related coverage. It served as a reminder that these anomalies have not been fully investigated and that there may be basis for the opposition’s claim that it has been singled out for investigation.

The alleged pork barrel scam was exposed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 2013 after whistleblower Benhur Luy identified Napoles as the alleged mastermind behind a scam involving lawmakers getting large kickbacks from ghost projects through PDAF. According to the news report, Napoles named 85 lawmakers with whom she had transactions but only 17 charges were filed before the Sandiganbayan including against senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jose “Jingoy” Estrada, and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. Twenty-one charges are pending before the Office of the Ombudsman. The report said that court trials have yet to start.

Apart from those in the Napoles list, more than 250 other lawmakers have not been investigated, the report said. They include 16 senators and 240 members of the House of Representatives who allegedly illegally diverted PHP 9.992 billion to fake NGOs between 2007 and 2009.

The three-minute report interviewed Enrile’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, who said the investigations only targeted opposition lawmakers.

Department of Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano, a former Sandiganbayan associate justice earlier tasked by the court to continue helping in the investigating of the PDAF scam, said the charges were filed against the lawmakers in the Napoles list because there are witnesses willing to testify. According to the law, he added, the Ombudsman should prioritize cases involving huge sums of money. Justiniano also said charges against the others have not been filed because of the lack of supporting documents and whistleblowers.

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