New pork scam probe pushed

Senators Francis Escudero and Grace Poe want to reopen the investigation into the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel scam to identify the other culprits behind the scandal aside from its suspected mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.

Escudero said that he favored reopening the Senate investigation, especially if the Department of Justice had new evidence to pin down other personalities involved.

He said that only P6 billion worth of questionable pork barrel projects had been investigated in the case of Napoles, while the Commission on Audit said that about P13 billion to P14 billion of public funds were unaccounted for.

“So more than half had yet to be investigated,” he said.
Poe said that many other individuals profited from the pork barrel funds.

Poe said a number of personalities identified in past investigations had yet to come forward.

“If there are [issues] that have not been resolved or there is new evidence that needs to be investigated, then we really have to reopen it. That PDAF [scam] really goes deep,” she said.