Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares: Open bank accounts. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Cabinet officials and other personalities linked to the pork barrel scam could have their bank accounts opened to clear their names, party-list representatives said on Wednesday.
“If the Cabinet secretaries immediately issued a statement saying ‘open our bank accounts and we have nothing to do with this,’ that would make life simpler,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares.
He said there would then be no need to resort to the “circuitous way” of going through procedures outlined in the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Colmenares noted that during the impeachment trial of then Chief Justice Renato Corona, the Aquino administration had been saying that public officials must be transparent.
If the officials’ bank accounts are open to scrutiny, he said the transactions there could be checked against claims made by Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the siphoning of pork barrel funds to ghost projects and kickbacks, in her affidavit submitted to the Senate on Tuesday.
In her expanded affidavit, Napoles named Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Chief Joel Villanueva and Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Zenaida Ducut among more than 120 lawmakers, government officials who allegedly benefited from the pork scam. The Cabinet secretaries have denied wrongdoing.
Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan said all those involved should be subjected to lifestyle checks, not just those on the opposite side of the political fence.
“If you’re sincere in advocating the daang matuwid [straight and righteous path], subject all to a lifestyle check,” Ilagan said.
Don’t clear execs this early
Ilagan and Colmenares also said President Aquino should not prejudge the case this early and refrain from essentially clearing his Cabinet officials implicated in the controversy.
“The message of the people for the President is that if those mentioned in the affidavit are your allies, you should not come to their defense immediately if this is a real anticorruption drive,” Colmenares said.
He added that it would not sit well with the public if the investigation would be tainted with bias and favored administration allies. He said this would be nothing more than an attempt to cripple political opponents in 2016.
Ilagan said the President should let the investigation run its course.
“He should have withheld judgment and allowed the agencies and the investigation to run its course. You cannot show bias now that your allies are being mentioned or enumerated in the list,” she said.
ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio also said that by stating that he doubted the credibility of Napoles’ revelations, the President had undermined the government’s case in the pork barrel scam.