‘Remain vigilant,’ anti-pork barrel activist tells Filipino public

By: Leila B. Salaverria - 11 years ago

PEACHY Rallonza-Bretaña

MANILA, Philippines—The Filipino public should stay vigilant now that plunder charges have been filed against three senators, suspected operators and agents in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, an activist who led in the Million People March against pork barrel said on Tuesday.

Peachy Bretana, one of the organizers of the massive march against the pork barrel in 2013, said politicians facing corruption charges could no longer bank on the people forgetting. She said the public should remain vigilant during the trial of the accused.

“It’s the only way they would know that they can’t do that to us again, we won’t just be sitting pretty. Those days are over,” Bretana said in a phone interview.

She said the country should no longer have a scam in the scale of the pork barrel fund diversion and the public’s monitoring of the legal proceedings against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., and their cohorts such as Janet Lim Napoles would be crucial in attaining justice and preventing massive corruption in the future.

“We have to know if this is an exercise in futility or an exercise in justice,” she said.

Bretana was of course jubilant over the Ombudsman’s decision, though she wished it had come much sooner. She and the Million People March group had hoped for a December filing of the cases.