No urgency in Senate ‘pork’ probe–Osmena

Senator Sergio Osmena. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – There is no urgency for the Senate to resume its investigation into the “pork barrel” scam now that the issue is at the Office of the Ombudsman, Senator Serge Osmena has said.

“The urgency is with the chismosos [gossips], they want to know, the public wants to know. But legally, there’s no urgency with us because it’s already with the Ombudsman. They are the ones, under the law, that is tasked to conduct an investigation and file a case,” Osmena said Thursday during the weekly “Kapihan sa Senado.”

“So no matter what we say here, it’s chismis [gossip]…We just want to let people know in advance what the information is. But it’s not our duty to prosecute,” he said.

Osmena, vice chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee investigating the scam, pointed out that the work of the Senate was to legislate and conduct investigations in aid of legislation.

“And we hope we have enough information, I think we have enough information, to make the proper amendments. But unfortunately, this story has taken a life of its own. And people want to know more. So, that’s why we’re still conducting hearings because of that, to satisfy the public demand,” he said.

“But as far as the criminal process is concerned, that’s out of our hands. It is in the hands of the Ombudsman, the Department of Justice, the Sandiganbayan.”

Asked if there were now a number of senators who were interested to resume the investigation after the so-called “pork” list of detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles was submitted to the committee, Osmena said: “Yeah. Naiipit nga si TG eh.” TG is Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the committee.

Osmena said Guingona may have been torn “between a rock and a hard place.” “Like I said, the hardest thing in the world is investigating your own peers. Kasamahan mo iyan di ba [He’s your peer]. It’s difficult. I don’t envy him…Mga kaibigan mo rin ‘yang mga iyan eh [They’ve been your friends]. You should never ask a friend to judge, or render judgement, over another friend. Give it to a neutral person,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we are the ones who are elected to the Senate, and we have a committee called the Blue Ribbon committee that is tasked to investigate any acts of malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance by any government officials. Poor Sen. Guingona is now stuck in that position where he has to conduct the investigation, and at the same time investigating his companions, his comrades, his friends in the Senate. So, he has to be very careful.”

While he thinks Guingona was not being controlled by Malacanang, Osmena said, “…It’s very obvious that the Palace is trying to control the information coming out of the other agencies.”

Osmena also dismissed insinuations that the committee was deliberately stalling the resumption of its investigation into the scam, saying he himself would like to proceed with the probe.

“Unfortunately, I am not calling the shots. But again, I will say this, I am not saying that Sen. Guingona is stopping the investigation. Except that maybe he is overwhelmed with the amount of information that he asked for and was given, and now, he is drowning in papers. Mahirap basahin iyon ah [It’s difficult to read], 31,000 pages?!” he said.

He was referring to the digital records of whistleblower Benhur Luy that the National Bureau of Investigation submitted to the committee. The files allegedly contain pork transactions with certain lawmakers and individuals.
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