Questions of propriety are being asked in the face of President Aquino receiving fugitive and pork barrel brains Janet Lim Napoles in Malacañang on Wednesday night. Napoles’ fear for her life against real or imagined threats there are certain people out to silence her (presumably legislators linked to her P10- billion pork barrel scam) was the reason she surrendered only to the highest official of the land. That the President accepted her surrender is not so much of an issue. After all, as presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda asked: “Would we rather wait and something happens to her while on the run? Then everybody would blame the President for not accepting her surrender at the Palace.” Some may agree with Lacierda’s Catch 22 situation of the President—damn if he does, and damn if he doesn’t. But did the President have to go the extra mile to escort Napoles to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame? To personally see if she is secured and comfortable? On Thursday, Napoles was transferred to the Makati City jail on orders of RTC Judge Elmo Alameda. The crime of serious illegal detention of principal witness and whistleblower Benhur Luy was committed in a Bonifacio Global City condo unit in Makati owned by Napoles She has yet to be charged for the P10-billion pork barrel scam. According to Lacierda who admits having at one time worked in the same law office with Napoles lawyer Lorna Kapunan, the President said “napuyat na rin lang tayo, we might as well go to Camp Crame.” The hare-brained excuse simply does not wash. A taxi driver listening to the radio report of the Napoles surrender to PNoy and personally escorting her to Camp Crame was dumbfounded. “Ano? Binigyan na ng VIP treatment sa Malacañang, hinatid pa? This is a mere taxi driver who dropped out of high school on his third year. He does not know the meaning of protocol, but unlike Aquino and Lacierda, the common man has a better sense of presidential propriety and impropriety. Lacierda, according to his own account, fetched the fugitive at the Heritage Memorial Park cemetery, the designated meeting place where Napoles had built a P30- million mausoleum for her mother. Lacierda claimed the meeting with the President attended by Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and PNP chief Alan Purisima took only about 10 to 15 minutes. He insisted there was no VIP treatment and no deal struck with Napoles. That Napoles chose the President to surrender to raises questions as to how well-connected Napoles is to the Palace, and if she had contributed funds to the Liberal Party in the 2010 presidential campaign. Another question was why Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and the National Bureau of Investigation had been kept out of the loop in the Napoles surrender. Mug shots, palm and fingerprints of Napoles were shown but she was not presented to the press. The police routinely parade suspects for photo-ops, but then Janet Lim Napoles is not your usual suspect. De Lima and Mar Roxas have expressed different opinions on whether Napoles can be made a state witness. While Roxas raises this possibility, De Lima squelched the idea saying Napoles cannot be made a state witness in the P10-billion pork barrel scam because she is the most guilty being the brains behind it. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago shares De Lima’s opinion. De Lima also believes the case against Napoles is already strong with the affidavits executed by whistleblowers Benhur Luy, Merlina Sunas et al who are in the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program. Lacierda may have outdone himself with his outrageous comparison of the Napoles surrender to President Aquino with that of Huk supremo Luis Taruc to then President Ramon Magsaysay. Taruc, the leader of the armed communist rebellion in the 50s, was a dissident ideologue. Magsaysay received Taruc in Malacañang in his earnest quest for peace in Central Luzon which he started as then Defense Secretary. Lacierda’s comparison of Napoles to Taruc is like drawing similarities between organized crime and an ideological struggle for democratic ideals. Pork barrel for battleships Meanwhile, speaking before the Philippine Bar Association in Makati, Supreme Court Senior Justice Antonio Carpio suggested that the P27-billion pork barrel fund still in the 2014 national budget be realigned to buy battleships to boost the country’s maritime security. With the rising tension in the South China Sea dispute, Carpio said the money could buy at least 41 warships for the country’s self- defense capability. On Thursday, Beijing said it never extended an invitation to President Aquino to attend the Asean Trade Expo set to open Tuesday in Nanning, China. Did the Philippine Embassy in Beijing goof or did the Chinese simply want to embarrass the Philippine President who was all set to go?
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 13:35:36 +0000
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