Four years after the Pork Barrel Scam led to a rally of sorts at Rizal Park, it seems that most people have forgotten the theft of up to 14 billion pesos in Priority Development Assistance Funds and the many questions that were never asked or answered at the height of the biggest corruption controversy in the Philippines.
It was a good thing that, a couple of days ago, former Makati Vice Mayor Bobby Brillante came out to urge the present administration and senate leadership to re-open investigations into the Pork Barrel Fund Scam.
Speaking as the convener of the Campaign for Public Accountability, Brillante said that the previous probe of the scandal under the past administration of Pres. Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III was “derailed” and ended up “covering up” for other personalities whose names also got dragged into the issue.
“During the Aquino administration, the Senate, headed by Sen. Drilon, was bent on derailing the issues and covering up for some people (and) at the same time pin down the (members of the) opposition,” Brillante said.
“Their investigation focused only on three opposition senators,” Brillante added, in reference to then senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla, the only high-profile personalities charged and subsequently detained over the scandal.
“This time around we hope that an investigation will produce a more complete picture of all those involved in the pork barrel scam.”
Allies of Looting Pigs who say that Brillante is lying will be slapped in the face by clear evidence of Looting Pig Drilon stone walling the senate’s investigation. LP Drilon had initially refused to approve a subpoena for Janet Lim Napoles to appear before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing — which was, back then, led by Drilon’s fellow Looting Pig TG Guingona.
Of course, Drilon was expected to find a way to keep Napoles quiet and divert the investigation because Napoles had reportedly given P100 million for the Looting Pigs election campaign fund.
That is, of course, besides the enormous help that Napoles gave to Looting Pig senators and congressmen who wanted to steal millions from their pork barrel funds.
Funny thing though… Despite the fact that the Duterte Administration has done away with Senator Leila De Lima and shredded the reputation of Senator Antonio Trillanes (who are more likely the Looting Pigs ground commanders), Duterte has yet to train his guns on Drilon who is most likely one of the high commanders of the Looting Pigs.
Seeing how his resolve had won his administration victory over ISIS in Marawi, it seems only natural to expect his resolve to rid the country of corruption would lead to the charging and incarceration of Drilon. (That is, if we can expect that what happened to Enrile, Estrada and Revilla can be applied to Drilon.)
Then again, it occurs to us that maybe Duterte has to work through his allies in the senate. One of them being Senator Dick Gordon, a man whom Duterte said should be the country’s next president.
In May this year, current Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Dick Gordon said he would re-open the investigation into the Pork Barrel Scam IF NEW EVIDENCE TURNS UP.
This seems like a particularly LIMP stand right now, especially after Secretary of Justice Vitaliano Aguirre recently said that Napoles had tagged Drilon in the Pork Barrel Scam.
As far as I can tell, this is NEW EVIDENCE and Gordon should have immediately scheduled an investigation. But he hasn’t.
What’s the matter Gordon? Nanlalambot ka ba kay Drilon?
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