Will they get away with it?

When Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada held a press conference on the same day the Department of Justice filed plunder charges against him and 37 others including two of his colleagues allegedly for pocketing billions of pesos in Priority Development Assistance Funds, he brimmed with confidence saying the charges against him would not prosper.

This, even if whistle-blower Benhur Luy recorded more than P183 million in kickbacks through ghost projects funded by the lawmaker’s PDAF that were received by Estrada’s office staff from 2004 to 2012.

Estrada didn’t deny funnelling his PDAF to nongovernment organizations (NGOs) which turned out to be dubious. Instead, he passed the blame to the executive agencies that accredited the NGOs. According to Jinggoy, endorsing an NGO is not a crime and lawmakers are not responsible for determining if a foundation receiving their pork barrel is fake.

In the context of the whistle-blowers’ expose, Jinggoy would like us to believe that he did not sense something was off in the way some executive agencies favored JLN Enterprises to the point that it practically cornered his PDAF for nine years.

Estrada’s disavowals about not knowing the background of the dubious NGOs do not match his seeming closeness with Janet Lim-Napoles. The news website Rappler published several pictures of Napoles joining Senator Estrada, his wife, his father former president Joseph Estrada and his mother, former senator Loi Ejercito in what looked like an intimate gathering of family and friends.

I think Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile recognized the weakness of Jinggoy’s defense because the fact that their PDAF went to NGOs has been determined by an investigation of the Commission on Audit.

Enrile declared yesterday he did not authorize his staff to charge his PDAF to NGOs. He clarified that his instructions were to funnel his PDAF to local government units. He seems decided to pin down his chief-of-staff, Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, who has already flown the coop.

The veteran lawmaker, who is considered one of the most skillful lawyers in the country, took some time to rebut charges that he funnelled his PDAF from 2004 to 2010 to NGOs identified with Napoles. She allegedly set up a scheme that reportedly earned for Enrile close to P173 million.

The biggest earner among the three senators tagged in the plunder of PDAF is Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., who is said to have gained more than P224 million from 2006 to 2010.

Lawmakers are the first to highlight their supposed role in identifying projects for their constituents. This is the principal justification why they want access to huge government funds. As a distributor of funds, lawmakers have the bigger responsibility to monitor if monies were properly applied, reached project-beneficiaries and whether the programs are in operation.

In fact, if Estrada was a conscientious lawmaker he could bring these concerns during deliberations on the national budget. To say that his responsibility ended after he assigned funds to national agencies is not acceptable. If anything, his defense smacks of criminal neglect.

Jinggoy’s confidence must stem from a previous plunder charge in which he was acquitted.

In 2000, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada was impeached after Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson revealed that Estrada received jueteng payola and kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes. Estrada was later ousted after the impeachment hearing was aborted. He was later charged and convicted for the crime of plunder.

The Supreme Court verdict pronounced that the jueteng payola amounting to P545 million was passed to the President through then Senator Jinggoy and lawyer Edward Serapio. Jinggoy and Serapio stood as co-accused in the plunder case but they were acquitted.

The promulgation of the guilty verdict on Erap happened six years ago, when we all thought that people in government received the message loud and clear. As we know, the Supreme Court decision turned empty because barely two months after Erap was pronounced guilty of plunder, former president Gloria Arroyo granted him executive clemency.

The plunder case of 2000 which was resolved by the judiciary but reinvented politically is something to think about because the tsunami of plunder we are seeing today all boils down to the culture of impunity.

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The Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) Cebu Community will be spreading cheer on Sept. 21 and 22 to mark the Catholic renewal movement’s 24th anniversary.

The milestone will open with a “Unity Walk” on September 21 starting at 6 a.m. at the Mandaue City Sports Complex. Fun and games will merge with a bazaar, auction and rummage sale at the same venue for two days. To cap the celebration on Sept. 22, the community will hold the “Unity Run” and a talent search entitled, “BLDs Got Talent”.

Congratulations and more spirit-filled years ahead, BLD Cebu!