Escudero calls nonfiling of pork scam cases unfair

Sen. Francis Escudero. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Sen. Francis Escudero on Thursday said the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) inaction on other pork barrel scam cases was “unfair” to those who had already been charged as well as to the people.

Escudero was reacting to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s statement early this week that the filing of the third batch of pork barrel scam cases was not among her priorities before leaving office, widely believed to be in preparation to run for senator in 2016.

Escudero pointed out that the Commission on Audit special audit of the congressional pork barrel, officially known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), reported that more than P6 billion from the PDAF was funneled through fake nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and local government units (LGUs) into ghost projects and the pockets of legislators.

So far, the DOJ has filed cases against personalities allegedly involved in the diversion of the pork barrel funds into NGOs controlled by alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. They include Napoles, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, and other public officials and private persons, who are all detained while awaiting trial for plunder and graft.

“The Napoles NGOs only got about P2 billion of a total of over P6 billion in funds that were funneled through NGOs and LGUs. What about the bigger balance?” Escudero asked.

“The DOJ will clearly be remiss if it does not pursue this,” he said.

Estrada has denounced De Lima for her statement deprioritizing the pork barrel scam cases, saying she was practicing “selective justice” in going only after himself, Revilla and Enrile.

De Lima has postponed several times the filing of the third batch of pork barrel scam cases which reports say involve as respondents Sen. Gregorio Honasan, Director General Joel Villanueva of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, La Union Rep. Victor Ortega, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Abono party-list Rep. Conrado Estrella III, among others.

Meanwhile, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) on Thursday said De Lima was holding back on filing charges against the third batch of pork barrel scam and Malampaya Fund scam respondents to guarantee support from these lawmakers and mayors for administration candidates in 2016.

Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, the UNA interim president, noted that it has been 19 months since the first plunder cases in the PDAF scam were filed by De Lima and the only administration ally to be indicted was former Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon, a former Muntinlupa congressman.

“It’s surprising why the government will suddenly lose interest in going after the people who they claimed abused public funds,” Tiangco said.