‘Brains’ behind pork barrel scam yields after President offers P10M bounty for her capture
Malacañang announced that Janet Lim Napoles has surrendered and is now under the custody of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.
Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam, turned herself in at past 9 p.m.
A Malacañang statement posted on the website of the Official Gazette confirmed this.
“At 9:37 p.m. on August 28, Janet Napoles surrendered to President Aquino. Napoles is wanted on charges of serious illegal detention arising from the alleged kidnapping of Benhur Luy.
“The President turned her over to the custody of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and Philippine National Police Director-General Alan Purisima for processing and booking,” Secretary Edwin Lacierda, the president’s spokesman, said.
Earlier yesterday, President Aquino announced a P10-million reward for Napoles’ capture.
The President announced the bounty on the sidelines of the 8th East Asia Conference on Competition Law and Policy at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel in Pasay City.
“P10 million is the reward for any information leading to the arrest of Ms Napoles,” the President told reporters.
Napoles and her brother Reynald Lim disappeared before authorities could serve arrest warrants on them on Aug. 14 for the alleged kidnapping of Napoles’ aide and cousin Benhur Luy.
Luy and other members of Napoles’ staff blew the whistle on the conversion of P10 billion in lawmakers’ priority development assistance fund into kickbacks by Napoles and her company using dummy foundations, bogus beneficiaries and forged signatures of officials.
The President warned people helping Napoles hide from the law.
“Harboring of a fugitive is a crime; obstruction of justice is a crime ,” he said, but expressed confidence that the authorities would collar her soon.
SOCIAL FUNDS
The President also scoffed at calls for the abolition of his Social Fund that is used to aid families of slain soldiers and policemen, but he vowed to account for the fund.
Aquino said the calls were puzzling because the President’s Social Fund (PSF), which came from the revenue of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), has not been misused during his watch.
“Have you noticed that nobody’s talking about the misuse of the President’s Social Fund? But they’re asking that it be stopped. You don’t understand what’s the logic there,” he told reporters.
Besides, the President said he has been tapping the PSF to provide assistance to the spouses and children, especially those of school age, of soldiers and policemen who were wounded or killed in combat or anti-crime campaign.
Part of it would also pay for the hospitalization of the wounded officers and men, and fund the education of the children of the slain soldiers and policemen, he said.
But given the strident calls for its abolition, Aquino said he would instruct the Presidential Management Staff to disclose details of where it was spent and how much of it remained.
After all, this has been “prudently spent,” he added.
The abolition of the PSF was among the calls made by some of the tens of thousands who rallied at Rizal Park in Manila last Monday to rail against misuse of the pork barrel fund.
The President announced the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a pork barrel, on Aug. 23 but failed to stop the mammoth rally on Aug. 26.
He said the PDAF would be replaced by line-item budgeting in which lawmakers would identify their pet projects.
Public outrage boiled over in the wake of newspaper and state auditors’ reports about the large-scale misuse of the lump sum fund at the disposal of senators and members of the House of Representatives over the years.
Malacañang earlier said that the PSF should not be treated as a pork barrel because it was not part of the national budget but was mainly funded by revenue from Pagcor.
The President reiterated that the special purpose fund, estimated at P450 billion in the proposed P2.268-trillion 2014 national budget, could be itemized to a point.
“We’re open to that,” he said. “But then, for instance, how do you itemize the calamity fund before the calamity strikes? You should have a standby fund for any disaster that of course we can’t predict.”
The President also defended the role of lawmakers to scrutinize the national budget proposed by the executive department as part of the system of checks and balances.
“I hope I got your question right. I have heard proposals to remove the role of Congress in the budget,” he said. “That’s in the Constitution. If you remove that and perhaps entrust that to me, that means there’s trust in me. Thank you.”
“But what if my successor is abusive? Where’s the check and balance? That’s the role of Congress. Not one person dictates. And the representative should represent the interest of his constituents,” he added.
Under the Constitution, the three main branches have “division of powers” to insulate the system of checks and balances from abuse, according to Aquino.
CONDUITS
Provincial capitols, city halls, and barangay halls have also been used by senators and representatives as conduits in the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam apart from the fake non-government organizations and conniving state agencies favored.
The recent Commission on Audit’s (COA) special report on PDAF released between 2007 and 2009 showed that at least P1.289 billion released through nine cities, six provinces and 109 barangays violated state procurement rules. Only 82 percent of these transactions were backed with documents that the COA considered “questionable” while the remaining 18 percent or P234.213 million had no disbursement vouchers at all. / INQUIRER
