Belmonte won’t clear all lawmakers linked to scam

By: Gil C. Cabacungan - 10 years ago

House of Representatives. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Speaker Feliciano Belmonte has refused to issue a sweeping statement clearing of any wrongdoing the 100 past and present members of the Lower House tagged by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles as among her agents or beneficiaries in her pork barrel scam.

“How can I say everybody here is clean? Of course, we don’t know that,” said Belmonte in response to calls from his fellow House leaders to make a strong statement defending his colleagues dragged into the pork barrel scam by Napoles’ affidavit used in her failed bid to get immunity for her and her children.

In a press conference a day before Congress adjourned its session Wednesday, Belmonte advised his peers to always be prepared and take appropriate measures especially since they were in a “profession where to be mentioned in the media is almost like being condemned.”

“If this were to happen in some other profession, it doesn’t matter. They’ll just laugh it off and forget it. Here, your enemies will always repeat it. That is why I told my companions here to be prepared and not just wait. Check your files and go to the COA (Commission on Audit) and DBM (Department of Budget and Management). These are public records,” said Belmonte. “Some people did the same and found out that there is no such transfers of funds as being alleged.”

Since part of the evidence submitted by whistle-blowers were Saros (or special release allotment orders released by the DBM indicating that budget items are ready for deployment), Belmonte said that this “implied” that the money which went to ghost foundations and ghost projects were from legislators.