Ombudsman unfazed by Duterte

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales is unfazed by the pronouncement of President Duterte that he wishes to revisit the cases involving the multibillion pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

She suggested that the President clarify what he meant. “I don’t know what he means by revisiting the Napoles case. To us it’s vague, so no comment,” she told reporters at the House of Representatives.

But Morales quickly added: “By the way, we are not worried… because what we did was legal and in accordance with law.”

The country’s top graft-buster was in the House on Thursday to present and defend her office’s P2.29 billion budget for next year before the chamber’s appropriations committee.

Morales said her office was still in the process of investigating several more lawmakers implicated in the wide-ranging scam, which involved the House members diverting their pork barrel allocations under the defunct Priority Development Assistance Fund to bogus foundations set up by Napoles.

Napoles and several lawmakers including former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla Jr., have since been charged and are on trial in the Sandiganbayan for their alleged involvement in the scam.

“Some are undergoing fact-finding investigation; some are undergoing preliminary investigation,” Morales said of the remaining cases.

As many as 240 lawmakers were mentioned in audit reports on the pork scam, according to the Ombudsman. “There are so many, but we target to finish all our investigations by the end of next year.”

Morales denied insinuations that her office was “filtering out” which legislators to indict according to political color.

“That’s not true. We decide which cases should first be investigated. We do it in accordance with the amount. The higher the amount, the priority to investigate it,” she said.