The shaming campaign of the targeted opposition senators in the pork barrel scam cases continues with the Philippine National Police showing its duplicity in handing over what was supposed to be the only copies of the mugshots of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to his father, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. But the next day these were seen splashed all over the daily broadsheets. The legal team of Estrada had sought to prevent a repeat of the voluntary yielding of his co-accused in the pork barrel scam case Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. which became a virtual media fest with newspapers carrying full blown up photos of nearly all the booking process and the demeanor of Revilla while undergoing the process. Releasing the mugshots to media of those who are still considered suspects in the pork scam cases is deplorable and has no other purpose but to put down the dignity of the targeted person. The Department of Justice is not expected to act on such complaints of the accused in the pork scandal since it is a participant in the campaign to demolish the opposition by going after those who are considered its pillars. Instead Justice Secretary Leila de Lima indulged in her gloating over the ordeal of the Palace-targeted senators calling the detention of Revilla and Estrada a “good start” with the remaining target Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile still out of the detention cell. It was made clear since the Ombudsman’s filing of the cases against the three senators that the desire of the Palace was to have the targets all in detention before the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of Noynoy for want of any clear achievement during the four years of his presidency. The detention of the three senators will be used as a backdrop while Noynoy would claim his supposed accomplishments against corruption in government or good governance. The Sona’s central theme would undoubtedly be “Good governance is good economics.” Good governance it isn’t, however, since efforts to prosecute those implicated in the pork barrel scam were directed mainly at members of the opposition and one or two dispensable scapegoat allies. Some of the closest associates of Noynoy such as Budget Secretary Butch Abad, Agriculture Secretary Processo Alcala, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Secretary General Joel Villanueva; and even Senate President Franklin Drilon were mentioned as deep into the scam in the “tell all” sworn testimony of alleged pork barrel brains Janet Lim-Napoles. Alcala was pointed to as being part of the Department of Agriculture syndicate which Napoles’ non-government organizations (NGOs) deal with in diverting the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of legislators. Worse, Abad was tagged by Napoles as her mentor in setting up the NGOs-based PDAF racket. The indignities will be heaped on the three senator targets and every means at the administration’s disposal will be employed to keep them detained until the elections next year as part of efforts to weaken the opposition front to bolster the non-existent chance of the Liberal Party presidential contender in 2016. Nobody believes that the Palace is being non-partisan in the filing of cases against those implicated in the pork barrel scandal. It is the same way that nobody believes Noynoy that he condemns the misuse of the PDAF while tightly clinging to his own pork barrel funds which amounts to more than P1 trillion in the annual budget. The pork barrel saga is turning out to be just part of the usual dirty partisan cycle in Philippine politics with nary an intention of cleaning up government. Published in Editorial
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 02:58:25 +0000
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