Palace vows airtight case vs persons behind pork racket

Presidential deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Facing yet another rally against pork barrel, Malacañang on Sunday quashed any lingering suspicion that the filing of charges against key personalities behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam would be a mere PR job.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Department of Justice has been preparing plunder and malversation charges against the scammers that would stand in court and lead to their conviction.

“This administration has a strong resolve to make sure justice is served in the misuse of the PDAF (priority development assistance fund),’’ Valte said over government-run dzRB.

President Aquino has given strict orders to the National Bureau of Investigation to prepare an air-tight case against businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles and the lawmakers who conspired with her in the scam. The NBI is under the DOJ.

“The President doesn’t want a case filed just for PR purposes. What he wants is that any case filed against any individual would stand in court, and get a conviction,’’ Valte said in the radio interview.

Apart from Napoles, the alleged brains behind the conversion of P10-billion in pork barrel into kickbacks, senators and congressmen would also be charged, officials said.

Whistle-blowers, state auditors and former executives of government corporations have consistently tagged Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. as among those who channeled their pork barrel over the years to bogus non-government organizations set up by Napoles. They denied this.

Given Napoles’ personal knowledge of the extent of the lawmakers’ role in the scam, the idea of her turning state witness has cropped up. But Aquino said she should be the least guilty to qualify as one.

Napoles surrendered to the President hours after he raised a P10-million reward for her arrest on Aug. 28. She’s now detained at a police camp in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, south of Manila.

After the Aug. 26 mammoth rally against pork barrel at the Rizal Park, Malacañang is bracing for yet another protest this Wednesday on Edsa, the biggest thoroughfare cutting through key cities in the capital.

While the President has abolished the PDAF item in the 2014 national budget, critics observed that he has yet to scrap the entire PDAF system in the budget.

Valte said the executive department was unperturbed by the protest rally, but was concerned about law and order, and the traffic gridlock it might cause.

“It’s not that we are worried about it. What’s important is that peace and order is maintained in mass actions like this,’’ she said.

Unlike the previous rally, which was held at the Rizal Park on a holiday, Valte pointed out that Wednesday’s rally would be staged on a working day, and on a major thoroughfare at that.

“So there are concerns on its effects on traffic and on the daily life in that area,’’ she said.

Secretary Edwin Lacierda earlier called on the organizers to consider moving the rally to another venue for the same reasons.

The planned gathering, dubbed Edsa Tayo, is apparently an offshoot of Netizens-inspired Million People March at Rizal Park. It is backed by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Valte also agreed with some lawmakers’ concerns that PDAF’s abolition in the budget would affect their programmed funding for scholarships and medical assistance for their constituents in their districts.

“That is true. There are a number of constituents also who have raised this concern and, precisely, the President recognizes this concern. That’s why in—that particular Friday, when he did make the announcement on the abolition of the PDAF, he took special care to mention that we know that there are legitimate needs of constituents everywhere, which is why we have to find ways to respond to these with the abolition of the PDAF,’’ she said.

Valte reiterated that planned suspension of remittance by overseas workers as part of their protest against pork barrel misuse would take its toll on the workers’ families back home.

But otherwise, the government would leave the matter to the judgment of the workers themselves, she said.

“It’s not the government that will be hit, but their families,’’ she said, adding: “We have full trust in the personal choices of our OFWs especially when it comes to family.’’

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