Whistleblower galore: Philippine pork barrel scam is becoming a sad trial-by-snitch circus!

February 20, 2014

by benign0

As expected, more pork scam snitches are coming out. And why wouldn’t they? Seeing how much of a celebrity treatment and the generous immunity to justice they are being showered by the government with, it makes complete sense to turn squealer. I’d hazard a guess that every other Philippine Senator and House representative is now mulling going down that path. If this trend continues, every person of interest in this circus will turn state snitch. And the only real losers coming out of all this will, as usual, be the hapless ordinary Pinoy schmoe.

Just recently, another snitch has reportedly come out…

Lawyer Levito Baligod confirmed that [Dennis] Cunanan, former general manager of the Technology Resource Center (TRC), had applied to become state witness last year but his application was stalled in the office of Justice Underscretary Jose Justiniano.

“Cunanan was one of my early resources persons even before Benhur Luy came forward. I was talking to him and [former National Agribusiness Corporation vice-president] Rhoda Mendoza around March 2013,” he told ABS-CBNnews.com.

Baligod said Cunanan confirmed that he talked to Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and other legislators when he was first designated officer-in-charge of the TRC. Cunanan made the calls to validate the senator’s signatures on letters endorsing the non-government organizations of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, Baligod said.

True to form, no less than Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III contributed his presidential two cents on the matter of just how valuable these “state witnesses” are to this worthy cause…

Aquino told reporters he watched the Senate proceedings last Thursday and found Ruby Tuason credible when she divulged that she herself delivered alleged kickbacks to senators.

“The more important thing is that it was personal knowledge on her part, and she was able to narrate it – how did she receive the money, to whom she delivered it and who benefited from it,” Aquino said.

But he said it would be best left to prosecutors to elicit the information needed to convict an accused in court.

Inquiries in the Senate are always in aid of legislation, the President added.

Artistahin: Top state snitch Ruby Tuason

But of course. The Senate “probes” are “always” in aid of legislation — a concept I had earlier highlighted in a previous article. And yes, of course, it is all “best left to prosecutors to elicit the information needed to convict an accused in court”. Yet knowing all that, President BS Aquino just had to make that inappropriate presidential comment on Tuason’s “credibility” as a snitch.

It’s times like these that one could so appreciate the significance of PNoy’s given name initials.

First it was trial-by-media. Now it is trial-by-snitch. Any idiot will see that all this is just another Senate “probe” circus with a cast-of-a-thousand whistleblowers that will likely go nowhere. Indeed, it is quite obvious that all this is part of an election winning machine already kicking into gear in the lead up to the 2016 presidential elections. No surprise that the biggest targets of this pointless demonisation campaign masquerading as a Blue Ribbon Committee operation are the top-seeded presidential candidates — Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada.

But these two senators along with Senators Tito Sotto and Bongbong Marocs are also alleged to have received amongst themselves a total P370 million from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) — a slush fund that the President alone exercises full authority over. Either way you look at it, all roads of accountability lead back to President BS Aquino, regardless of how many snitches emerge from the woodwork. When you are the ultimate sourceof money used for crooked activities, distraction and demonisation campaigns become your only remaining options.

Of course, it is quite evident that there remains more than just a little reasonable doubt that these Senators are not without guilt. Indeed, many Filipinos are acutely aware that pork is the really the whole, if not the onlyreal point of becoming a Philippine senator. So such a campaign to expose this thievery, albeit done in that circus fashion Filipinos are renowned for, is long overdue.

However, publicly humiliating alleged crooks is one thing. Actually prosecuting them and sending them to prison is another. The earlier only needs the sorts of moronic antics we are seeing on TV today. The latter, however, demands a bit more science — and scientific rigour ain’t exactly a discipline Filipinos are renowned for. To convict and jail a crook, you need the investigative chops to gather relevant and sound evidence then piece these together into a story that can convince a judge.

When you’ve got bozos like Senator Antonio Trillanes overseeing these Senate probes, and idiots like President BS Aquino cheering them on, chances are, no real science will emerge out of all that noise. And where there is no science, there will be no conviction. It’s all a no-brainer. Senators assumed their office on the basis of mere popularity. The officers of the Philippines’ judicial and law enforcement institutions, on the other hand, got their positions on the basis of real qualifications — like criminology and law and degrees among other examples.

In short, the only real outcome that Filipinos should deem acceptable is one where a robust body of real evidence of a grade that will pass the qualified scrutiny of a judge within the procedural rigours of a court of law is built. So far, nothing more than a merry orgy of high-fives and publicity photo posing in a den of thieves we call a “Senate” is all we have to show for after all this time. Typical.

[Photo coutesy GMA News Online.]