New York USA 05252014/ Metro Manila Philippines 05262014 COVER-UP: NAPOLESGATE Last October journalist Tony Lopez wrote in his BizNews Asia publication a long article on the PDAF explosions, then rather new, which began with this paragraph: “Senators and 334 congressmen have been found to enjoy hundreds of millions of payola disguised as pork barrel. In 2007-2009 alone, they got P115 billion. President Aquino has two options: to prosecute the guilty or since some of them are his political allies, to help in the cover-up of what is a massive yearly plunder of people’s money that has resulted in the poverty of millions and the perpetuation in power of the greedy, corrupt and incompetent political dynasties. PEOPLE ARE MAD (emphasis BOC’s).” Lopez’s article, written before the Supreme Court’s ruling rendering the PDAF unconstitutional, raises a question: “Can President Aquino run after Enrile, Angara, Bong, Jinggoy and Alan?” Juan Ponce Enrile, (Edgardo) Angara and bong Revilla are three top PDAF senators for 2007-2009, as per COA listing (Sen. Enrile P904,500 million, former Sen. Angara P862.645 million, and Sen. Bong Revilla at P853 million during those years), as per COA report and quoted by Lopez in BizNews. XXX Today, seven months later, it’s becoming clear to all and sundry---except the most fanatical of P-Noy’s followers---that there’s a cover-up of the massive plunder to protect his allies implicated in the Napoles scam, while the administration’s firepower is directed primarily against opposition senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, in a shameful display of selective justice. All this time, P-Noy has been shielding his allies---led by the chief of the office where all the squandered public funds both from Congress and the LGUs have emanated from in the last close to four years---the DBM under Secretary Butch Abad. On the other hand, for this year alone the pork barrel of LGUs has amounted to P361 billion, sans veritable COA audit. This has prompted Rep. Gary Alejano of the party-list group Magdalo to demand that COA render the same attention to those funds as it did to the PDAFs of 2007-2009. Janet Napoles claims that Abad had taught her the rudiments of setting up an organization to lure the legislators’ PDAFs, and that their relationship go a long long way. Abad denies this. XXX What’s sad is that from all indications there has been no genuine effort to pursue the truth concerning funds channeled to other public servants, especially of the yellow kind, such as Abad, Franklin Drilon (recipient of the second fattest DAP in the Senate) and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. The administration’s preferred option is doubtless to blur and obfuscate the facts, for if the entire truth about Napoles and other NGO scams is fully revealed, the Aquino government could very well collapse under its weight (at the moment one can already feel the instability). As for the nation’s corpus, so much financial blood has been drained from it by official corruption (P10 billion to eight bogus NGOs of Napoles and a still-to be computed amount to 64 other lesser non-Napoles fake NGOs)---accounting for its frightfully emaciated shape. So much poverty especially in the city slums and rural countryside. XXX To begin with, it appears that the Liberal Party had tapped this polluted source for its campaign funds in 2010 for candidate P-Noy and in the recent senatorial elections of 2013. Denials have been made, but the public is convinced about the LP conspiracy with Ma’am Janet in the elections---given all those cozy photos showing her and her daughter with LP bigwigs; LP campaign banners announcing her presence; and the special treatment accorded to her at the Palace and in Crame where P-Noy personally escorted her for custody. The grand cover-up is achieved principally by confusing the public with conflicting lists of the scams and scoundrels involved, including a list from Rehabilitation Czar Panfilo Lacson, who seems to prefer the limelight derived from dangling a list supposedly from Janets husband Jimmy, rather than to get devastated Visayas back on its feet. XXX There’s a grand build-up about the affidavit of Janet Napoles, which is supposed to be a written and sworn version of what Justice Secretary De Lima extracted from Janet in a “tell-all” marathon confession for five hours five weeks ago---just before the notorious prisoner went under the knife for uterine surgery (probably already sedated. Was a credible confession still possible?). De Lima promised to make the affidavit public tomorrow, but we can’t really hold our breath on it or its veracity. Recall that weeks after that tell-all session, De Lima kept saying she was still “vetting” the sins Napoles had confessed at Ospital ng Makati. XXX Consider too the following: after the song-and-dance act of the Three Furies (De Lima, Grace Pulido Tan and Conchita Carpio Morales) many months ago, COA Chief Tan, under heavy public pressure, promised to reveal the sequel to the 2007-2009 list, but she never got around to it. On the other hand, the lead prosecutor against graft and corruption, Ombudsman Morales, is apparently not in a hurry either to prosecute any scalawag, as she left for the US to attend a seminar (on what?) for one and a half months (!) until mid-June. CBCP President Socrates Villegas has exhorted the administration to pursue the truth about the scams and for all the political scalawags to return the dirty money they received from Napoles at al. But tracking the truth is tough, especially since Napoles can’t afford to tell the entire truth about her special friends in high places, for one good reason---she’s seeking immunity or at least much lighter punishment for her children. Hence she has to toe the admin line and incriminate or exonerate whoever what it wants her to incriminate or exonerate. XXX Thus, it’s no stroke of brilliance to predict that Ma’am Janet would exclude majority of the presidential bigwig allies from her list, except perhaps for one or two admin small fries to be thrown in for credibility (who shall the sacrificial lambs be?). To ensure that there’s no confusion, remember that the hard drive files of whistle-blower Ben-Hur Luy have been in the possession of the NBI, which is under De Limas jurisdiction, all this time. Just why the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee failed to demand these of Luy when he appeared before it months ago is a wonder---but then, it’s really no wonder, as that committee has changed its color from blue to yellow, with chair TG Guingona exonerating the administration even before the conclusion of his hearings. Thus, when presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte very haughtily snapped last Friday that Janet “should put her money where her mouth is” (by the way, that’s language very unbecoming of Valte’s office), that was a naked threat to Janet. XXX by : BOC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------// LISTEN 24/7 radiopinoyusa USA & Global HD News Broadcast
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 22:17:37 +0000
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