...................................A Deafening Silence................................................................. ................................................................................................................................ It started at first as just another scandal under the graft-ridden administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. About P10 billion in pork barrel funds from 5 senators and 23 congressmen were said to have been funneled through the use of 22 bogus NGOs linked to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles. It turns out that this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to a special report of the Commission on Audit as revealed by Grace Pulido-Tan, in just three years—from 2007 to 2009—P6.156 billion, sourced from the Priority Development Assistance Fund of 12 senators and 180 congressmen, were transferred to 82 spurious NGOs. On top of this, 74 lawmakers got more than the usual P70 million PDAF allocation. The excess for some ran into hundreds of millions, and one, Manuel Zamora, got P2.998 billion, or almost P3 billion, in 2007. Former Nueva Ecija Representative Eduardo Nonato Joson, himself listed as one of the lawmakers who exceeded their PDAF allocations, explained how this happens: “The additional funds for lawmakers are acquired through budget insertions, connections with the President and Cabinet secretaries, and from ‘fixations’ or fundings overseen by fixers.” “During my first two terms as lawmaker in 1987 until 1992, walang ganito kabulok na sistema (the system was not this rotten),” Joson said. The magnitude of the sums involved and the massive spread of corruption, tainting all but a few of our lawmakers, stunned the nation and brought tears to COA chief Tan and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. Yet so far, there has only been a deafening silence from those expected to raise a howl and investigate this monumental scandal. The reason is not hard to divine. At the latest count, nine sitting senators have been implicated in the COA report, and more than 40 of the congressmen involved are still going strong in the House of Representatives, led by Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II (read: ‘the second’), who has been found not only to have exceeded his pork barrel allocations during the Arroyo administration but also is reported to have spent P256.381 million of his pork barrel for projects using spurious documents. Gonzales was senior deputy majority leader from 2007 and 2009 when all impeachment cases against Arroyo were nipped in the bud. Since five other senators are related to those implicated, and Congress remains a closed system of political dynasties bound together by a web of kinship ties, it is not likely that an investigation will prosper. It is up to our people to express outrage and finally put a stop to being robbed blind through the simple expedient of allocating annually P24 billion of pork barrel funds which are largely discretionary and loosely accounted for. Studies show that corruption is directly proportionate to the degree of discretion put into the hands of those in power, be it a mere clerk or an unscrupulous Congress now shown to be no more than a house of thieves. ..................................................................................................................................... . INSTITUTE OF STUDIES FOR ASIAN CHURCH AND CULTURE
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 03:01:46 +0000
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