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MANILA, Philippines – Sen Miriam Defensor Santiago said immediate suspension awaits her colleagues involved in the pork barrel scam once prosecutors file a plunder case against them in court.
In a speech in Pasay City on Monday, September 9, Santiago said the 1991 Anti-Plunder Act provides that any public officer facing criminal prosecution pending in court shall be suspended from office. Watch the full speech here:
“The law says that within 30 days of filing of plunder case, the senators and congressmen will be suspended. That will be a glorious day!”
Santiago also slammed her archenemy who is tagged in the controversy, Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, naming the multi-billion peso scam after him.
“Let justice be done, though the heavens fall, though the world perish. This scandal will be one of the most bloodcurdling crimes in Philippine political history. It should be known as Enrilegate.”
Besides Enrile, other senators named in state audit reports on the scam are Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr, Jinggoy Estrada, Gringo Honasan, and Edgardo Angara.
The pork barrel scam is an alleged intricate web of corruption where senators and congressmen allegedly allowed their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to be channeled to fake non-government organizations in exchange for hefty kickbacks.
‘Transfer of funds to NGOs illegal’
Santiago echoed her colleagues like Sen Francis Escudero in saying that rules under the Government Procurement Reform Act and the resolution of the Government Procurement and Policy Board were not followed in the transfer of funds to NGOs.
She said that while the budget law allows the transfer of funds to the NGOs, the procedure for doing so was “deliberately ignored and therefore transfer of public funds to NGOs has been illegal.”
“P’wede ka nga magbigay ng pera sa NGO pero may kondisyon ‘yan: public bidding o negotiated procurement. Wala silang ganun.” (You can give funds to an NGO but with the condition: do it either via public budding or a negotiated procurement. None of that happened.)
The procedure also includes the submission of full liquidation reports and the NGOs’ financial statements for the past 3 years stamped by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“The funds, whether from PDAF or other sources of appropriations, are ALWAYS released to an implementing agency…and NEVER to an NGO,” she said.
“The choice of the NGO is the responsibility of the agency head, not the senator or congressman,” Santiago stressed. “Choosing the contractor is illegal and yet, lawmakers have been doing it with impunity.”
Santiago said lawmakers usually connive with contractors to ensure they get 50% of the funds while the contractors get 30%.
“When a lawmaker chooses the contractor, that is a crime and a dead giveaway of a lawmakers’ intent to get kickbacks.
In hearings of the Senate blue ribbon committee, Commission on Audit Chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan and former heads of implementing agencies National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCOR) and ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp. (ZREC) said that Enrile, Revilla, and Estrada signed endorsement letters choosing NGOs linked to Janet Napoles, the alleged brains behind the scam.
Santiago also said that the amendment in the 2013 budget law allowing only 70% of liquidation of the fund transfer to NGOs weakened the compliance requirement.
“I bet it was Napoles’ best friend who amended this,” Santiago said but refused to name the lawmaker she was referring to.
JPE ‘has grown old in corruption’
Santiago also responded to the arguments of lawmakers pushing for the retention of pork barrel.
“Gusto raw nila magbigay ng pork para mamigay ng gamot. Eh di mag-pharmacist siya? Anong kinalaman nun sa senador?!” (They said they want to give away pork barrel funds to buy medicine. Then they should be pharmacists. What does that have to do with the job of a senator?)
Santiago added: “Lawmakers refuse to ignore that corruption is embedded in the system. They run for office to get pork barrel and recoup their expenses in elections. They keep stealing to recover the money and they even have an interest.”
The senator called on the public not to allow the “anti-graft momentum” to fade.
In her speech, Santiago also accused Enrile of funding an alleged smear campaign against her.
She said the “online version of a popular newspaper” carried a report last Friday implicating her in the scam. She said the story “carried the bylines of a members of the corrupt media.”
“These stories which very obviously engage in character assassination against me can only be funded by my archenemy. He is a man who has grown so old in government corruption that I believe he was a waiter during the Last Supper.”
She continued her tirades against Enrile and former Sen Panfilo Lacson. She dedicated to them this poem:
“I’m rubber, you’re glue;
Whatever you say bounces off me
And sticks to you.”
“My advice to this old man is: Get a sex life!” – Rappler.com
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