Senator Santiago’s next targets: Line agencies

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Friday vowed to grill next the officials who allowed their respective line agencies to funnel millions of pesos in pork barrel funds to Janet Lim Napoles’ fake nongovernment organizations on the mere say-so of her conspirator-lawmakers.

In a speech, a copy of which was furnished to the Senate media, Santiago said she would file another resolution expanding the scope of the blue ribbon committee’s inquiry to include the government functionaries, some of whom were already charged before the Ombudsman.

“In the present pork barrel scandal, the most guilty are not only the senators and representatives, but also the executive officers of the so-called implementing agencies, which could be a department, an agency, or a local government unit,” Santiago told graduates of the Western Visayas State University.

“As we are beginning to see in the publicly televised proceedings of the Senate blue ribbon committee, the problem arose because the senator or the congressman insisted to the head of the implementing agency that the service or supply contract should be given to the legislator’s chosen supplier or contractor, from whom the legislator got a kickback of as high as 50 percent,” she added.

According to Santiago, the choice of the NGO is subject to competitive bidding or through negotiated procurement under the Government Procurement Reform Act.

“The executive officers of many of these implementing agencies, such as the Technology Research Center, National Agribusiness Corporation, and Muslim Youth Foundation appear to be equally guilty of the crime of plunder or malversation committed by the lawmaker who exerted pressure to give a contract to one specific supplier or contractor,” Santiago said.

“Accordingly, I shall file a resolution for the Senate blue ribbon committee to expand the scope of its present inquiry on the pork barrel scam, so as to include executive officers of implementing agencies,” she added.

Santiago said the panel needed to establish the criminal liability of their past and present executives.

“Then we should recover the misappropriated funds.  And then we should throw into jail the liable public officials.  After we have accomplished these measures, it follows that the guilty implementing agencies involved in the pork barrel scandal should be abolished or reformed,” Santiago said.

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