Palace: No special treatment for Aquino allies over ‘pork’ raps

A Malacañang official has denied the Palace is giving preferential treatment to its allies in connection to the filing of charges against those who are allegedly involved in the multibillion pork barrel fund scam.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Communications Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr. emphasized that the government under President Benigno Aquino III had not changed its stance in making officials involved in the scam accountable.

“Walang inuuri o walang tinutukoy na espesyal o hindi espesyal. Wala pong binibigyan ng preferential treatment dito at wala pong makakaiwas sa pananagutan kung talagang mayroong kongkretong batayan o kongkretong ebidensiya laban sa kanila. Hindi po nababali ang commitment ng ating Pangulo hinggil diyan (There is no special treatment. We do not give preferential treatment here and no one skirts away from accountability if there is concrete evidence against them. The President’s commitment on the matter is resolute),” Coloma said.

Coloma said the Department of Justice should not file charges against those allegedly involved in the scam without sufficient evidence.

“Kinakailangan talagang kung anumang usapin ang isasampa laban sa kanino man ay meron talagang sapat na batayan dahil hindi naman natin ito gustong maging … na parang hindi sineryoso at kahit na hindi kumpleto o hindi pa supisyente ang batayan ay magfi-file na lamang ng kaso para huwag lamang masabi na hindi nag-file ng kaso (In every complaint which will be filed against anyone, there has to be sufficient proof so that it will be taken seriously. We do not file cases not backed by concrete evidence for the sake of filing cases),” he added.

The response of the Palace stemmed from the pronouncement made by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Tuesday saying that the filing of the third batch of “pork” raps is not a priority of the justice department.

READ: De Lima run may delay pork cases

The first batch of cases were filed in September 2013 against 38 officials, which include Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada. On November 2013, the DOJ filed the second batch of cases.

Reports said that the third batch of cases on the pork barrel scam involved administration allies such as Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Secretary Joel T. Villanueva and Sen. Gringo Honasan, along with some congressmen allied with the Liberal Party.

De Lima said Aquino’s directive was to make sure the third batch of cases “should stick.” RC