Senate blue ribbon committee chair Teofisto Guingona III: Enough information. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net file photo
MANILA, Philippines—Senate blue ribbon committee chair Teofisto Guingona III said he wanted to wrap up the inquiry into the P10-billion pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles, saying it had already yielded “enough information” in aid of legislation.
“If it were up to me, I would wrap up the [inquiry on the] Napoles-pork barrel scam because I feel that my objectives have been met,” Guingona said in a text message coursed through his staff on Friday.
The inquiry has put lawmakers themselves on the hot seat: The billion-peso scam allegedly involved some senators and House representatives who, in cahoots with certain executive agencies, assigned their pork barrel allocations (formally known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF) to fake nongovernment organizations. Napoles, who had formed and registered the bogus NGOs, allegedly collected billions of pesos ostensibly intended for projects for poor farming sectors and the like, then split the cash with the lawmakers.
Enough said
Guingona signaled that enough had been said a few weeks after Napoles finally appeared in the Senate committee’s sixth hearing on the PDAF scam. She denied the charges against her and, when pressed to answer questions, she more often than not invoked her right against self-incrimination.
Before this, critics accused Senate President Franklin Drilon of trying to block the appearance of Napoles at the hearings.
Guingona, however, admitted that a decision to stop the pork scam hearings would depend on his consultations with other committee members.
“This is not yet final,” he said, adding that the committee had yet to decide if it would continue the pork barrel probe or shift to the probe of the Malampaya scam, which would turn the spotlight on the previous administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The government’s multibillion-peso share of the Malampaya natural gas project was also reportedly mined for kickbacks by Napoles and her cohorts in the executive and legislative branches.
But Sen. Francis Escudero, who sought the inquiry into the PDAF scam, still wants the committee to summon Napoles’ husband, former military officer Jaime Napoles, to shed more light on the pork barrel scam.
Escudero also asked the committee to summon the bank executive that allowed Napoles to withdraw huge sums of money—transactions that should have raised red flags in the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
The Office of the Ombudsman has already filed plunder or malversation charges against 38 people, including former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. Also on the charge list were Representatives or former Representatives Rizalina Seachon-Lanete, Edgar Valdez, Rodolfo Plaza, Samuel Dangwa and Constantino Jaraula, and their senior staff, department heads and other agency officials.
‘We’re innocent’
Enrile, Estrada, Revilla and other lawmakers have denied involvement in the misuse of their pork barrel funds. The three senators inhibited themselves from the blue ribbon panel proceedings.
In connection with the P900-million Malampaya gas fund mess, complaints were submitted last October against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, three of her Cabinet secretaries and 20 others.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has ruled that the PDAF, which allowed legislators privileges to intervene in the execution of projects, was unconstitutional.
The high court is also set to rule on the legality of President Aquino’s Disbursement Acceleration Program, which reportedly also funneled funds to legislators involved in the Napoles scam as well as others who voted to supported Malacañang’s campaign to oust the former chief justice, Renato Corona.