Pork misuse probe expanded

MANILA, Philippines—A wider investigation of the alleged misuse of the lawmakers’ pork barrel allocations has been underway since the Commission on Audit (COA) released a review of the transactions beginning in 2007, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Monday.

The Inter-Agency on Anti-Graft Coordinating Council (IAAGCC) is conducting the inquiry that covers nongovernment organizations (NGOs) not under the scope of the probe being conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged P10-billion scam engineered by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

De Lima said the COA special audit released on Aug. 16 last year mentioned questionable allocations of 180 lawmakers from their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

“There are now teams of the field investigation office working on a number of lawmakers who are part of the 180 plus over and above those who had already been charged,” said De Lima, who chairs the IAAGCC with Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

She said she was hesitant to announce the IAAGCC moves but had to do so to “allay apprehensions and disabuse the minds of some” that the government was focused only on investigating Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr.

De Lima said Estrada’s claim that he, Enrile and Revilla were being singled out for persecution was “not right.”

“There are teams that are investigating the others, they are gathering evidence and it’s not only the three senators and it’s not only Napoles,”’ she said.

Napoles and the three senators are among 38 people under investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged P10-billion racket that diverted PDAF funds into ghost projects of Napoles’ NGOs and kickbacks for lawmakers. They have all denied wrongdoing.

De Lima said she had not yet seen the affidavits executed by two former officials of National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) submitted to the Ombudsman, which stated that four senators—Enrile, Estrada, Revilla and former Sen. Edgardo Angara—and 79 representatives coursed P1.7 billion of their PDAF to the agency with orders to funnel the funds to questionable NGOs.

She said she would clarify from Levito Baligod, the lawyer of former Nabcor officials Rhodora Mendoza and Vic Cacal, whether the IAAGCC was investigating lawmakers named in the affidavits.

COA to evaluate list

During a hearing of the Senate finance committee on Monday, COA Chair Grace Pulido-Tan said she would like to look at the list of  Mendoza, former vice president for finance, and Cacal, former head of general services, both of Nabcor, an agency attached to the Department of Agriculture.

“What came out in the newspaper was a list from Rhodora, the accountant. That’s her own list. What I’d like to do and what I’ve asked them to do is to compare it with our list,” Tan said, referring to the COA special audit of PDAF allocations from 2007 to 2009 that showed that some P6.2 billion was funneled to dubious NGOs. That COA report identified the lawmakers and the amounts they allotted to NGOs through government corporations.

“It’s practically the same story. What Rhodora said is what we actually said in the audit,” Tan said.

She said the COA also issued audit reports of Nabcor in 2010, 2011 and 2012, but these were incorporated into the audit reports of specific agencies and local government units (LGUs).

“Yes, that would come out,” Tan said when asked by Sen. Francis Escudero, the committee chair, if the legislators who coursed their PDAF through these agencies could be identified. “But as I said, there were less and less that were going through conduits, but we found more and more LGUs, with the same NGOs.”

Allies won’t be spared

Malacañang on Monday maintained that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would rely only on evidence in prosecuting those involved in the alleged pork barrel scam, administration allies included.

“What we have always maintained is that where the evidence leads, the DOJ will investigate,” President Aquino’s spokesperson, Edwin Lacierda, told reporters.

Lacierda sought to dispel speculations that the President’s allies were being spared in the PDAF investigations.

Director General Joel Villanueva of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, a close friend of Aquino, was earlier linked to the pork barrel scam.

Last month, provisional whistle-blower Dennis Cunanan alleged that Villanueva was among those who had channeled their pork barrel through the Technology and Resource Center, en route to NGOs controlled by Napoles. Villanueva has denied the allegations.

Lacierda said the developments “should douse any suspicion or fear that this government is set to protect its allies.”

Asked how the President feels about the Villanueva case, he said: “The President maintains the same principle that where the evidence leads, the DOJ will prosecute, they will investigate.”

19 allies on Nabcor list

 

Former Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, a member of the President’s Liberal Party, was likewise implicated in the alleged PDAF scam.

At least 19 administration allies were among the 83 lawmakers accused of coursing their pork barrel allocations through Nabcor, allegedly with instructions to tap questionable foundations to implement the projects.

Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon on Monday urged his colleagues to conduct a probe on the 79 incumbent and former representatives on the Mendoza and Cacal lists.

“A full and fair inquiry should be undertaken by Congress on the Nabcor scam, as the involvement of 78 representatives is no simple matter. We wish to give our colleagues the opportunity to defend themselves before their peers, and an investigation by the committee on good government would help shed light on the truth behind the scam,” Ridon said.—With reports from Christian V. Esguerra and Gil C. Cabacungan

 

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