Crime syndicate aka Congress

In the wake of massive adverse criticism, the indispensable partner of the most influential “crime syndicate” in the country—which goes by the name Congress of the Philippines—has commenced damage control.

The Senate, through its Blue Ribbon Committee, is investigating the P10-billion pork barrel scam allegedly orchestrated by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles in collaboration with some congressmen and senators.

The scandal was corroborated in part by the special audit conducted by the Commission on Audit on pork barrel disbursements from 2007 to 2009.

In what looks like a harbinger of things to come, the committee chair said the senators implicated in the scandal will not be investigated. They will be allowed to sit in the proceedings and, if they desire, be given the opportunity to defend themselves from the allegations of misconduct.

Wow! The Mafia can surely learn a thing or two from our senators on professional courtesy among sharks and crocodiles.

In a rare case of delicadeza, the senators in question opted to inhibit themselves from attending the investigation. Whether or not they will keep to that promise or are just waiting for the right time to insert themselves into the proceedings remains to be seen.

Witnesses

For starters, the committee summoned COA chair Grace Pulido Tan to explain the audit report. The committee’s list of witnesses includes Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, NBI director Nonnatus Rojas, and the whistleblowers in the Napoles case.

If the senators think the Auditor General is someone they can intimidate into backtracking on the contents of the audit report or softening its blows, they are in for a big surprise.

The feisty accountant-lawyer is no pushover when it comes to numbers and tying up loose ends in fraudulent transactions. The senators better be careful in asking her questions lest their ignorance in law and government procedures be shamelessly exposed to the public.

She is cut from the same cloth as Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales who, during the trial of then Chief Justice Renato Corona, gave Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a self-proclaimed expert in criminal law, a dose of her own medicine.

Neither should the senators entertain the idea that Secretary De Lima can be bullied into taking it easy on the senators whose signatures appear in the documents that enabled their favorite NGOs to feast on pork barrel funds that eventually found their way into the senators’ pockets.

Whistleblowers

Her performance during the Corona impeachment trial and oral argument before the Supreme Court on the travel ban on then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo shows that she’s one person you don’t mess with it on legal issues.

The committee’s plan to invite the whistleblowers in the Napoles case to its investigation is suspicious and scary.

What is the motive behind this move? Their sworn statements are already being reviewed by the NBI in connection with its plan to file plunder charges against Napoles and her cohorts.

Will the senators be able to elicit more information or get a clearer view of the paper trail in the pork barrel scam better than the grizzled NBI investigators?  Or is the invitation merely a ploy to pressure the whistleblowers into retracting their statements and absolving the senators named in the exposé and audit report?

Excuse me, but outside the likes of then Sen. Joker Arroyo, the present batch of senators is grossly unskilled in the art of asking sensible questions and conducting effective cross-examination.

They think with their mouth and make statements with an eye to coming up with sound bites that can find space in newspapers, radio broadcasts or TV evening news.

In earlier committee hearings aired live, haven’t you noticed that whenever a witness’ answer does not conform to a senator’s expectation, the latter is quick to threaten to cite him for contempt and ordered detained until he tells the truth, meaning, the answer the senator wants to hear regardless of its truth or falsity?

The senators’ ego trip is just too strong to resist.

Expectations

The committee’s investigation of the pork barrel scandal will, like earlier inquiries, be another waste of time, money and effort.

Since the issue involves senators, either way the probe goes, people will find it difficult to accept the integrity of the committee’s findings. Sad, but true, the credibility of the Senate, and House of Representatives, ranges from a high of zero to a low of nil.

Sure, the committee can propose remedial legislation to address the issues arising from the pork barrel mess. But knowing our legislators’ instinct for self-aggrandizement, it is doubtful if any such legislation would be enacted at all or, if by some freak of nature it’s enacted, it would be so watered down as to make it next to useless.

At the end of the day, it will be up to the Ombudsman to decide who among the private persons, “senatongs” and “representathieves” involved should be prosecuted for malversation of public funds or plunder. The public will not accept a whitewash in this heinous crime.

Mercifully, the House leadership had the decency not to poke its finger into the issue and instead leave the investigation of the P10-billion heist to the NBI and justice department. They know the public will not believe the results of their investigation.

Incidentally, there is no truth to the rumor that Napoles owns 28 houses. The correct number is 30. The two houses of Congress were not included in the count. Har, har, har.

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