Pork scam witnesses see rally of supporters on TV, weep

From their safe house, the whistle-blowers in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam wept as they watched the TV reports on the Million People March at Manila’s Rizal Park.

Gertrudes Luy, mother of principal whistle-blower Benhur, said, “My son could not stop crying when we talked on the phone while we were watching the event on TV.”

“He said he never thought his exposé could touch so many people,” the mother said.

“We cried when we saw the mass of people at Luneta … It affirmed our belief that we did the right thing in coming out to tell the truth,” said Merlina Suñas, one of the witnesses to the purported racket of their former employer, Janet Lim-Napoles.

Suñas said she now felt that all her sacrifices were worth the troubles she had gone through, including prolonged separation from her family.

Levito Baligod, counsel of the whistle-blowers, said his clients were advised not to attend the gathering at the park for security reasons.

“Even if they wanted to be there, they could not due to security risks,” Baligod said.

“I am happy that most of our countrymen care for our country, remain to be decent Filipinos who do not countenance abuses committed even by the highest officials of the land. We should continue to exact accountability if we want to bring back decency in government, and make it a norm in public service,” he said.

“During times of political crises, decent and patriotic Filipinos never failed to unite in sentiment, thought, and purpose to acquire the strength and courage necessary to exact accountability from our elected officials.”