By Nestor Mata
Malaya
Malaya
‘A host of lies about the scandalous disbursals of pork barrel funds could set in motion political events which could very well cause grief to Noynoy Aquino and his government.’
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada
IT looks like President Noynoy Aquino has opened a Pandora’s Box of lies about the scandalous disbursements from the public purse of multi-millions in pork barrel funds which may well cause grief and misery to him and his three years, three months and three days-old regime.
Aquino and his claque of political strategists, startled by revelations of Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada in a privilege speech before his fellow senators last week that millions of pork barrel funds were used to ensure the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona by then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and 19 other senators. They were “rewarded” P50 million each.
A few hours later, Senate President Franklin Drilon, then one of the senator-judges during the four-month impeachment trial of Corona, rose in defense of Malacañang Palace (meaning no less than President Aquino, of course!).
He claimed that “no PDAF was released precisely to avoid suspicions that funds were being peddled to influence the trial…before, during, or after the trial.”
Alas, Drilon was caught telling a lie, just like President Aquino lied when he claimed he never knew Janet Lim Napoles, dubbed “Queen of Pork Barrel scam”, but this was disproved when he gave her a “royal welcome” at the Palace. In Drilon’s case, the truth, as posted in the Department of Budget and Management’s website, was that weeks before the Senate decision convicting Corona, Aquino had indeed approved the release of P559 million from the PDAF by DBM Secretary Florencio Abad to the senators. And Drilon, who acted like a prosecutor and not as judge during Corona’s trial, got millions in pork barrel funds first on April 24 before and on May 22 after Corona’s faux trial.
Apparently alarmed by the public uproar over the anomalous releases of millions from the public purse of pork barrel funds under the PDAF, originally intended for financing infrastructure and other social projects and not for buying off senators in Corona’s faux impeachment trial, Aquino approved, on suggestion of Abad, the so-called “Disbursement acceleration Program (DAP)” to justify the quick release of millions as “additional pork-barrel” funds to the 20 senators, a few months after they decided to convict Corona.
This prompted Senator Joker Arroyo, one of three senators who didn’t vote for Corona’s conviction, to say in a press statement that Abad was “misleading” the public by “pulling out of his hat the yet unheard of DAP” to justify the questionable disbursements under the PDAF or pork barrel fund. Arroyo also accused Abad of “lying” that he (Arroyo) sought P47 billion last February and that it was taken from the DAP, not from the PDAF. The truth was that Arroyo never availed of his PDAF allocations first as congressman and then as senator.
Arroyo, once Executive Secretary of Noynoy’s mother during her time as president, warned that the “rewards” to the 20 senator-judges in the impeachment of Corona “puts Malacañang on a slipping slope, placing the charge of at least impropriety, if not outright bribery, right at the presidential doorstep.”
The use of the word “bribery” has been carefully avoided by President Aquino and his political strategists and allies in the Senate. Even oppositionist Senator Estrada, who exposed the pork barrel mess and later admitted he got his P50 million from the PDAF before the Senate decision on Corona, said it was not a “bribe” but, as Drilon called it, an “incentive.”
Obviously, they’re both unaware that there’s hardly any difference between those two words. Whether in the English language or in Latin or even in Swahili, these words practically mean the same thing. In the Oxford ninth edition and Webster’s third international edition dictionaries, the word “bribe” means “to persuade a person to act, especially illegally or dishonestly” or “a reward bestowed to pervert the judgment or to corrupt the conduct of a person” and “given before, during or after the act in which the briber wanted to influence the action.” The word “incentive” means “a payout to stimulate someone to act or to incite into action.”
So, there you are, President Aquino and his Palace strategists, advisers and political allies have entangled themselves in a web of lies, and have opened themselves to accusations of bribery for bestowing rewards to pervert the judgment of the senators in the Corona impeachment trial.
This very clearly means they are liable for culpable violation of the Constitution’s provision for “bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and other crimes.” And these are grounds for President Aquino’s impeachment, or, hopefully, for a bloodless change of regime!
***
If Senator Estrada for his revelations, and retired Senator Arroyo for exposing the lies and acts of bribery in the pork barrel scandal, may be called “whistleblowers,” then Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, too, may qualify as one. (By the way, Arroyo, Santiago, and Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos were the only ones who didn’t vote for Corona’s conviction.)
In the midst of the public clamor for pork barrel abolition, Santiago also revealed in a radio interview that all senators, apart from their paltry salary each of P35,000 a month, get a fixed monthly budget of P2 million each.
In addition, she said each senator’s office has a P500,000 outlay for maintenance and operating expenses (such as rentals, utilities, supplies, and domestic travels), apart from P60,000 allowances each month for foreign travels, all of which do not require liquidation and receipts, just certifications of the expenses.
Not only this, she disclosed that all senators receive more or less P1 million as chairmen of 37 Senate committees, and they get P200 million budget for PDAF or pork barrel funds every year, and some of them reportedly get 20 to 30 percent from contractors for infrastructure and livelihood projects.
Oh yes, President Aquino’s salary amounted P74.4 billion in the last three years or a total of P24.8 billion a year, and, if he escapes impeachment, he gets another P74.4 billion for the next three years. And he has control of at least 50 percent of the national budget or a trillion pesos from the public purse, all of which are not subject to congressional scrutiny.
Now we all know why Aquino and all senators spend millions of pesos as candidates for the presidency and the Senate during their campaigns. As they say in Filipino, “Bawing-bawi pala ang gastos kapag naupo na sa poder silang lahat.”
And so, wonder no longer why our country will never, ever get off the ground, why the nation finds it difficult to progress, why it has not advanced like other neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, why, as people are saying, “kaya lahat ng kalyehon lubak-lubak at masyadong madumi at mababaho”, and so on and on ad nauseam!
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Quote of the Day: “In a true democracy, you cannot restrain the voice of the people!” – Abraham Lincoln
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