Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Maybe he wasn’t listening.
This was Senator Ramon Revilla, Jr.’s curt reaction to President Aquino’s speech on Wednesday night when the Chief Executive said those implicated in the multi-billion-peso pork barrel fund scam have not fully explained their side and denied their involvement in the massive fraud.
“Perhaps the reason why President Aquino has yet to hear anything [from our end] was because he wasn’t listening,” Revilla said in a statement sent through text by his legal counsel Joel Bodegon.
“I am not a thief and I never stole anything from the national coffers,” Revilla added.
Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, who along with Senator Juan Ponce Enrile and Revilla were the first three senators charged with plunder in connection with the pork barrel funds scam, expressed support for Aquino in his bid to prosecute those who pocketed millions of pesos in public funds.
“I support his remarks that he’ll go after those that took advantage of public funds. I am with his government in going after thieves in the government,” Estrada said over radio station dwIZ.
“Even if I was implicated in the pork barrel scam, I want to tell you that I never stole from the public coffers,” Estrada added.
Enrile has yet to issue a reaction on Aquino’s speech but has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing with regards to projects funded with millions of pesos worth of his priority development assistance fund entitlements.
In a news conference on his involvement in the pork barrel fund scam, Enrile said he would part with his and his family’s material wealth if it could be proven that he pocketed taxpayers’ money.
“It’s good that he explained the legality of the DAP [disbursement acceleration program]. I just hope I was not the one being referred to by President Aquino when he mentioned people who are trying to muddle the issue,” Estrada said.
Estrada, who delivered a privilege speech on how some of Aquino’s allies allegedly misused their own pork barrel fund entitlements, said he never sought to divert the public’s ire towards the direction of the administration.
Estrada said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad was the one who brought out the existence of the controversial DAP, a portion of which funded projects identified by legislators after the 2012 impeachment of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“If you recall in my privilege speech, I never referred to DAP,” Estrada said.
Estrada said in his speech that months after the Corona trial, then Senate committee on finance chairman Senator Franklin Drilon asked him in a private and confidential letter to identify projects worth P50 million.
Estrada said in subsequent interviews that the P50 million worth of projects wasn’t a bribe but incentives after the Senate convicted and removed Corona from the Supreme Court.
“Up until now, I consider myself as an ally of President Aquino,” Estrada said. Even if he’s in the Senate minority led by Enrile, Estrada said he supports Aquino’s legislative agenda.
Revilla said he was the first to deny any involvement in the so-called PDAF scam and to call for a thorough investigation of the scam and identify and prosecute all those responsible for the crime.
Although a member of the majority coalition in the Senate, Revilla isn’t considered much of an administration ally as his son Jolo successfully ran for vice governor in Cavite against a Liberal Party-backed slate in the recent local elections.
“I am ready and I will face whatever investigation to clear my name of the lies told against me,” Revilla said.
On Aquino’s charge that the lawmakers involved in the scam didn’t bother to check where millions of pesos worth of their PDAF went, Bodegon said, “Senator Revilla’s availments of his PDAF allocation are duly accounted for.”
“It seems that President is so swayed by the faulty COA [Commission on Audit] report. As the whistleblowers admit, they faked all the documents pertaining to Senator Revilla,” Bodegon said.
“In other words, the availments covered by those falsified documents are not Senator Revilla’s,” Bodegon added.
As regards the controversial disbursement acceleration program of the Aquino administration, Bodegon said Revilla believed DAP was a form of presidential pork barrel.
“Senator Revilla says that whatever the President says, the DAP is presidential pork and that is a fact. The President’s explanations on DAP raised more questions than answers,” Bodegon said.
“No senator or congressman knew about DAP. It did not pass through Congress. Then too [Revilla] did not know that the DAP was used in the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona,” Bodegon added.
Estrada said he would leave it to the Supreme Court to determine whether the DAP was legal.
“If the President believes that DAP is constitutional, so be it. But there is still the Supreme Court. That is the final arbiter of the law,” Estrada said.
On Aquino’s allegation that an elderly politician from the opposition’s camp suggested squid tactics in lieu of a credible defense amid the charges against them, the 50-year old Estrada said, “Definitely, that’s not me.”
“I don’t know if it’s Senator Enrile or [former] Senator [Joker] Arroyo,” Estrada said.
Estrada said the 89-year-old Senate minority leader Enrile, considered one of the three pillars of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, has been mostly quiet during the controversies over the pork barrel scam and the DAP.
Estrada said the 86-year-old Arroyo, on the other hand, has been quite vocal against the legality of the DAP.
Arroyo, however, only joined the fray after Abad said Arroyo got P47 million from the DAP for his pet projects in the Bicol region; something he vehemently denied. Arroyo also isn’t identified with the UNA-led opposition.
Aquino in his Wednesday night speech indicated that the elderly politician advised his colleagues to portray others as similarly guilty of corruption if they couldn’t come up with a satisfactory excuse on their involvement in the pork barrel scam.
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