House majority junks minority move to probe P10-B PDAF scam The House majority bloc has junked the move of the minority to pry into the alleged P10-billion Napoles scam involving the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of the lawmakers. According to the House leaders, a congressional investigation would only muddle the issue that is now being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Department of Justice (DoJ). “There is already the NBI and the DoJ and there are affidavits made by the witnesses. Even if we exhaust all our efforts in this, there will always be an impression that we are protecting ourselves,” Rep. Miro Quimbo, chairman of the House ways and means panel, said yesterday at the Uganayan sa Batasan Media Forum. “If our findings contradict that of the NBI and DoJ, what would happen? We won’t achieve anything,” Quimbo added. The House Minority bloc had wanted to conduct its own investigation into the scam that was perpetrated by one Janet Lim-Napoles. In House Resolution 160 the minority headed by San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora took the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability to task in conducting an investigation into the scam. “The magnitude and the destructive effects of PDAF scam must not be swept into oblivion since the issue is destroying the trust that members of Congress should enjoy from the people they represent,” the resolution said. Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone agreed with Quimbo, saying that the DoJ’s probe supersedes any congressional probe. “The highest leadership has already ordered the probe. What else are you looking for?,” Evardone said referring to President Aquino’s order for the DoJ to investigate. Quimbo and Evardone maintained that the House is not in a position to investigate itself. “The House doesn’t have the best record on investigating itself,” Quimbo stressed. Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, a member of the minority, said that refusing to probe the pork barrel scam fuels doubts that a number of the President’s allies are indeed involved in the misuse and abuse of their respective priority development assistance fund. “Barring any probe on the pork barrel scam is like allowing plunderers to escape accountability, it condones corruption and is a go signal for thieves to rob the nation’s coffers with impunity not just in Congress but in Malacañang as well,” Ilagan said in a separate statement. “A congressional probe is needed for the Congress to verify whether discretionary funds are indeed effective in addressing the basic social needs of the people or whether these funds are merely effective venues for corruption and political patronage,” she said. Ilagan yesterday called on the leadership of the House of Representatives to reconsider its decision not to pursue any probe on the pork barrel scam pending the decision from the DoJ. “Any government institution must submit to a probe so that those who have been implicated be given a venue to explain to the people. We are, in fact, accountable to the people,” said Ilagan. “Until they (DoJ) are finished,” Belmonte said when asked about the proposed House probe into the PDAF anomaly. Majority Leader Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales also justified the decision of the House leaders not to prioritize the probe on the PDAF scam, saying the House would be occupied with the hearings on the proposed 2014 national budget in the next few months. But Ilagan insisted on the probe saying it should push through without delay. “A congressional probe is needed for the Congress to verify whether discretionary funds are indeed effective in addressing the basic social needs of the people or whether these funds are merely effective venues for corruption and political patronage. This should be dealt with as we enter the budget deliberations,” said Ilagan. Meanwhile, a a group called the former senior government officials asked the Ombudsman and the Palace to investigate and review PDAF on its grave abuse. In a statement it asked the President to constitute a special committee composed of representatives of DBM, DoJ, and the private sector to review the PDAF process and to recommend safeguards to ensure that the PDAF is not further abused. “We ask the senators and representatives implicated in the scam to clear their names by voluntarily subjecting themselves to an impartial official investigation by the Ombudsman to determine the extent of their actual involvement in the P10 B scam.” “Our lawmakers should serve as models for compliance with the law. Only then can they have the moral authority to exercise oversight powers over the two other branches of government.” “It is time for the President and the people to prove that election to public office does not give officials a grant of impunity to plunder public funds”. Whatever problems it was meant to address, the PDAF has proven itself a cure more destructive than the disease. No benefit can possibly justify the crimes it has spawned and the systematic corruption of public institutions and officials it has promoted. Alleged operators like Napoles may have devised the blueprint for raiding the PDAF, but the greater accountability rests with the senators and representatives to whom the funds were entrusted. It was their responsibility to ensure that their PDAF went only to reputable NGOs proposing priority projects and that these projects produced the promised benefits. The senators and representatives who channeled funds to fake NGOs were not political neophytes. They, and we, were not born yesterday. Patronage of fake NGOs, particularly when repeated, provides grounds for charging culpable negligence, if not complicity in corruption, the formed government officials said in their statement.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:46:12 +0000
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