WHERE OBFUSCATION COMES FROM Written by Tribune Editorial Sunday, 27 April 2014 Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, among others, was furious about The Daily Tribune baring the Janet Lim-Napoles list of senators involved in the P10-billion pork barrel scam she initiated, saying it caused the mayhem she was trying to prevent in withholding the names Napoles implicated in the controversy. The mayhem started to percolate, however, from the moment she revealed having talked with Napoles to strike a deal and thus extract the confession. De Lima and the Palace are growing desperate over the lack of credibility of the witnesses being ranged against the targeted senators. There was a glimmer of hope that they will be able sway Gigi Reyes, former aide of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, into turning state witness against the three senators but after negotiations fell through then it seems that Napoles was the only remaining option. De Lima is now alleging that those meddling in the Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation are sowing confusion while allies of Noynoy are alleging that obfuscation is likely being initiated by the accused target senators. The alleged Napoles list, however, was part of the revelations of De Lima last Tuesday when she told media about her five-hour meeting with the pork barrel queen. Reporters later obtained from supposed National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) sources that 19 senators were included in the Napoles list. If it is the NBI that was the source of the floated number of senators in the list, then it would have likely came from De Lima’s orders. It would be unreal that De Lima has become very cautious about not divulging any details regarding her meeting with Napoles yet somebody from the NBI would suddenly pop up to feed reporters the number of senators in the list. It is being made to appear that the Palace-targeted senators were the ones orchestrating and benefiting from the obfuscation that De Lima had started. De Lima’s refusal to divulge the Napoles list on the senators is further fanning the mayhem. She knows that the list will be brought out even as she refuses to divulge it. That is what always happens whenever there is information being withheld by government. Media will always have their sources to go to whenever information is kept secret. The Daily Tribune had two sources who confirmed the names on the Napoles list. The list revealed to The Daily Tribune was even more than what supposedly came from the NBI source since both of those furnished the newspaper showed information coming from Napoles or their family members that identified Budget Secretary and Liberal Party (LP) strategist Florencio Abad as the pork barrel overlord. Also it named Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala as being deep into the scam while Senate President and LP secretary general Frank Drilon as obtaining his pork barrel through the indirect process of budget insertions which is now the standard procedure for legislators after the SC struck down the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). There was more information revealed, which is nonetheless earth shaking, but The Daily Tribune is playing its cards close to its chest for the meantime. The Daily Tribune sources were wary that the so-called verification that De Lima mentioned as being undertaken on the senators implicated by Napoles would actually be a sanitation process in conjunction with the Palace to remove the name of the allies in the list, the reason for their effort to preempt De Lima. Keeping the public in suspense and thus inciting mayhem is the fault of De Lima and not the opposition senators who are being pointed to as experts in the art of obfuscation. It seems that the Palace and De Lima, however, would benefit more from the confusion being created to bring into focus public attention on the PDAF of the Senate and the House instead of the bigger presidential pork barrel which is no different from PDAF, ruled as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Moreover, with the confusion raised, the public’s attention is diverted away from the weak plunder cases against the three target senators and possibly with Napoles agreeing to pinning one among senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Ramon Revilla Jr. as the pork barrel scam progenitor. De Lima and the Palace are sowing confusion for their chief benefit.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 20:39:16 +0000
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