Osmeña wants pork scam hearing reset for Nov. 18

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III. FILE PHOTO

What? Defer Janet Lim-Napoles’ much-awaited appearance in the Senate this Thursday?

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III on Sunday proposed that the blue ribbon committee defer Napoles’ appearance by two more weeks to allow more senators to attend the pork barrel scam inquiry.

The staff of Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III, committee chair, said he was standing by the original schedule.

“I am requesting Sen. TG Guingona to move the Nov. 7 hearing to Nov. 18, the day that Congress resumes. I am concerned that more than half the members of the Senate will be out of town since Congress is still on break,” Osmeña, committee vice chair, said in a statement.

He said senators should have the chance to pose questions to Napoles so that the chamber’s credibility would be “enhanced by more openness and greater transparency.”

The committee has sent out subpoenas for Napoles and the whistle-blowers to appear on Thursday’s hearing on the alleged conversion of P10 billion in lawmakers’ pork barrel into kickbacks.

Public interest has been building up in the run-up to the hearing where Napoles is expected to face her former employees who blew the lid off her alleged multibillion-peso racket.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr., who are facing a plunder complaint in connection with the alleged scam in the Office of the Ombudsman along with Napoles and 34 others, are expected to again skip the hearing.

Estrada flew to the United States on Saturday to get a second opinion from American doctors regarding a lump in his wife’s breast. His wife, Precy, is expected to join him in a few days.

Guingona told his staff that there won’t be any change in the schedule of Napoles’ appearance. He instructed the committee lawyers to go ahead with the preparations, said a member of his staff.

“So far, everything is set for Nov. 7. No changes,” his staff said by text.

Guingona did not reply to text queries or calls.