Palace disbursed P69B for Napoles By Francisco S. Tatad Against all efforts to exclude any pro-Aquino official from any case related to the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam, it now appears that in 2012 Malacañang itself used Janet Lim Napoles, the reputed mastermind, as a conduit to release P49 billion to P69 billion “pork” to the members of Congress to induce them to impeach and remove then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, and to railroad the passage of the widely opposed, anti-Catholic reproductive health bill. At least three opposition senators have been charged with alleged involvement in this scam before the Ombudsman. Initially revealed by Manila Standard columnist Jojo Robles in his two-part column last Thursday and Friday, without however indicating the amounts and the intermediaries involved, the information was confirmed to this writer by independent sources, who said at least P24 billion was disbursed by Malacanang to effect Corona’s impeachment and removal, and P25 billion to ram through the RH bill. In addition to these “special funds,” an extra P20 billion was believed to have been released to the lawmakers as “regular pork,” the sources said. According to our sources, two Cabinet members, who are said to be “specially close to Napoles” and to the senators, worked with Napoles on the Senate votes during the two vote-buying operations, while the House majority leader Neptali Gonzales II took care of the congressmen, in close collaboration with Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and communications secretary Ramon Carandang, who kept vigil over the House during the final voting on the RH bill. Whether the money went into real projects, this means the President disbursed huge amounts for purposes not authorized by law, the sources said. Under Sec. 29 (1), Article VI of the Constitution, “no money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.” The fact that billions were used to bribe members of Congress to do the President’s will would constitute culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes—everything mentioned in Sec. 2, Article XI of the Constitution (with the exception of treason) as grounds for impeaching and removing the President and other impeachable officials. Whether Aquino could be impeached and removed as easily as he had Corona is an altogether different matter. But the crime has been committed, and it cannot remain unpunished forever, the sources said. manilastandardtoday/2013/09/23/palace-disbursed-p69b-for-napoles/
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 04:17:01 +0000
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